IOC stands for democratically led development, not developer led democracy. Houses are for people, and we believe that the scale and location of new house building should be determined by the needs of communities. New homes should not be built to low standards and treated as ‘cash generators’ for unrelated transport or retail developments. So there’s plenty to do. Here’s how our core principles apply in this area:
Herefordshire is a desirable place to live, but has a low average income so it suffers particularly badly from the national problem of property prices outstripping incomes. The problem is especially acute in market towns and rural areas. Meanwhile across the county, much of our housing stick is of low quality and poor energy performance.
All this calls for creative schemes aimed at providing high quality affordable home sin response to complex patterns of local needs. The Council, as the panning authority, is best placed to drive this. Herefordshire has never featured in the national sustainable housing awards.
But rather than responding to real needs, the existing council/developer partnership proposes to build between 8,500 and 12,000 new houses in and around Hereford City. Whilst planning permissions have already been granted for some of the stock, these are the actual totals identified in the Local Development Framework reports. These housing developments would generate income for associated infrastructure, all of which the existing council plans to spend on the ‘Hereford Relief Road’ , leaving no funds to build the extra facilities required by so many new households. Furthermore, most of the housing (around three-quarters) is expected to be filled by in-migration from London and the South-East.
The houses will be built many years before the proposed ‘traffic alleviating bypass’ is completed. When the bypass is completed, possibly by 2020, it is predicted that traffic congestion will return to current levels. The same mistakes have been made before, in cities and towns around the UK. Let’s not repeat them here.
Encouraging speculative housing development risks making our current problems worse, and is not a sensible way to grow the local economy. An IOC council will abandon the nonsensical housing targets now being voluntarily adopted, and work closely with Herefordshire communities to develop a sensible housing strategy which delivers homes where they are needed.
This work will be based on community led plans and further, genuine consultation. We will also seek out socially responsible delivery partners for new housing, in order to ensure that new development enhances existing communities or, where necessary, creates sensitively integrated and socially sustainable new communities.
Community Land Trusts offer an ideal legal framework for identifying potential housing sites, and for developing them to a high standard at low cost. A county-wide CLT could enable the county to provide the access to cheap housing, both for purchase and to rent, that our local young people need so badly. It could potentially also offer serviced plots for sale to self builders.