Sam Stafford's Blog

Two pieces of news today that combine to illustrate the symbiotic relationship between politics and planning. Shelter has published a report today that concludes that the housing shortage is affecting the kind of areas that decide elections. The figures look at the number of private homes for sale that are affordable to three groups: young couples with children, single people and couples without children. The report looks at the entire country, finding 80% of homes on the market are unaffordable to working families on typical incomes. One of the marginal wards identified is Bury North, which is held by the Conservatives with a majority of 2,243 and where 72% of private homes available for sale are unaffordable for a couple on average incomes. At the same time, there is also news today that Bury's Core Strategy has been suspended for second time because of concerns about the evidence base for the proposed housing requirement. This quote from Cllr Sand...

In the fast-paced, high-octane, ever-changing world of town and country planning predicting the future can be a perilous business. The political pendulum will swing again at some point and the only sound prediction about change at national and regional level is that there will be some. I am prepared though to lay a petard upon which I may in future be hoisted by saying that neighbourhood plans (NPs) are not only here to stay, but will become a foundation of the planning system.   It would be easy to deride DCLG’s description of neighbourhood planning as a ‘growing movement’ as something of an exaggeration, but, as the website states, as of April 2014: around 1,000 communities have taken the first formal steps towards producing a NP;   80 full draft plans have been produced for consultation; and   13 neighbourhood plans have been passed at community referendums. There are over ten thousand parishes in England so thirteen plans passing referenda is quite a sma...