AFFORDABLE HOUSING CRISIS

The protests relating to the lack of affordable housing in London made national news this week, as one might expect. Certainly there is considerable evidence to support the growing need for housing of all types across the country, which in itself does much to fuel the anti-immigration argument.

However, it would be taking a rather simplistic view of the current situation to blame it all on incomers, many of whom do much to contribute towards our economy in one way or another. 

Locally there has been much angst and arm wringing as South Somerset once again gets ready to submit its local plan to the inspector. It has certainly been a very lengthy, time consuming and expensive process for everyone involved.

I always find it interesting to observe the extent to which, by and large, as long as everything is going well, most of us go about our daily business without too much consideration for the wider world beyond. It is only when we feel that our way of life is under threat that we take to the streets to fight our cause, as in this case.

Certainly where local planning is concerned there is always the tricky dichotomy between  overworked planning officers doing their best to apply rules not of their making, whilst being all too aware of the presumption in favour of planning permission being granted, unless evidence can be provided to the contrary. Sadly, the burden for gathering this evidence is increasingly falling on the shoulders of those local residents who feel that they will be most affected by any development. Whether the concern relates to the capacity of basic infrastructure, highways, school placement, the environment, or in the case of Somerset, worries over the impact on flooding, it certainly pays to do your homework.

It is hardly surprising when I suddenly find that I’m the most popular person around, unless of course the application does not go the way they would wish. For significant developments, or those with the potential for a negative impact on the factors mentioned above, the decision will fall to the area committees to make.

Unfortunately, and my point in raising the subject at all, is that this not where it ends. We are increasingly seeing the situation, where having been granted permission for a development, with an agreed percentage of affordable housing included as a condition, the developer will some time later look to have this condition modified, or removed altogether, usually on grounds of the lack of viability of the project.

Thus we find ourselves in a catch 22 situation, with the developer saying that they cannot complete construction whilst the affordable housing condition remains. Despite great unease among both planning officers, and locally elected council representatives it would seem that there is little to be done. I know that we all need somewhere to live, but I don’t believe we should be held to ransom in such a way in order to satisfy greedy unscrupulous developers.

Likewise, there seems to be no mechanism in place at all to penalise those who go ahead with construction without gaining planning permission first. All the offenders need to do is to submit an application retrospectively; this doesn’t say much for the rest of us who do our best to be law abiding citizens. Personally I blame Eric Pickles for such nonsense.