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What communities can do

  • demand that government and politicians at all levels of government tell the truth about the carbon cost of new housing development.
  • demand a more democratic system of meeting housing need
  • demand a system which allows local communities to consider environmental carrying capacity and carbon costs of development, and enables them to influence the level of development to align with national and local carbon reduction targets
  • support and encourage local politicians and other commentators who speak up against the undemocratic nature of the existing planning system
  • form alliances to advocate for a more democratic and climate friendly planning system, for example of all areas concerned about overdevelopment, or regional alliances
  • find and work with developers who explicitly concern themselves with the needs and wishes of local communities as determined and expressed by those local communities themselves, and more sustainable forms of housing

Campaigns

  • Enough is enough - Maidstone's Housing & Infrastructure, petition against housebuilding levels in Maidstone via cprekent.org.uk, added 17:18, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

Why it matters

"The problems of housing affect most of us. The solutions need to involve all of us, too." Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts, 2015 [1]

The carbon costs of new housing developments

New housing development has carbon costs from both the construction and use of the development.

It is arguable that the present system of carbon accounting does not adequately show, and make transparent, particularly to local communities affected, these carbon costs.

Given that Local plans cover several future years, this is especially of concern in the 2020's decade when as a nation, and as local communities, we should be reducing carbon costs.

The carbon costs associated with use of new housing developments has typically in recent years continued to lock us into, for the 2020's decade, yet more car dependency, when its clear we should be and should have been, promoting more sustainable means of transport.

Disempowered communities?

Under the present (eg as at Jan 2020) planning system local authorities and communities are effectively dictated to by central government over the housing provision they are required to make via Local Plans. Not only this but those that refuse to plan for the central government numbers are threatened with even higher numbers being imposed.

Concerning the level of housing provision local communities are expected to make, any climate concerns local communities may have are not in any way catered for in the Local plan system. Central governments position that climate concerns are irrelevant looks particularly perverse, even in the light of its own climate change legislation.

(to follow)

Citizens assemblies to tackle housing need

Carrying capacity of Bioregions

North / South balance

Community-led housing in the UK

In the UK, community-led housing currently constitutes less than 1% of housing stock. There have been attempts to stimulate increased growth, with mixed results. The most commonly known forms of community-led housing include: community land trusts, housing cooperatives, self–build, cohousing, and self-help housing. A range of legal models are in use in the UK to enable the delivery of community-led schemes. There is currently no legal definition of community-led housing. A draft definition was developed and presented for discussion in the House of Lords in March 2016 in relation to the Housing and Planning Act, where it was not progressed. W

News and comment

2020

Kent1.jpg

Feb 10 Kent: Gravesham residents form group to fight council's housing proposals, CPRE Kent [2]

Jan 28 Kent: Maidstone councillors of all political colours call on Government to ease housing targets [3]

Jan 21 New UK housing 'dominated by roads' [4] "... too many highways engineers are still approving roads that do not fully account for pedestrians and cyclists." Prof Matthew Carmona, University College London. Government poll suggests 76% of people think that for the sake of the environment, everyone should reduce their driving.

Kent1.jpg

Jan 20 Kent: Sevenoaks sticks to its guns and refuses to withdraw draft Local Plan from examination, CPRE Kent [5] Council leader Peter Fleming: “It is clear to me the way this has been handled calls into question the integrity of the whole Plan-making system in this country… “To call into question an evidence-led approach comes to the root of our concerns with the actions of the inspector. If we are not to follow the evidence to make our Plan then the government may just as well dictate how many homes an area should have and then pick sites, we need to put an end to the thinly veiled charade that Local Plans are in any way locally led.”

2019

Oct 28 The housing crisis is at the heart of our national nervous breakdown, John Harris [6]

Lily2.jpg

Oct 7 Biodiversity UK: Sir David Attenborough calls for new planning laws to protect nature [7]

Oct 3 More than a quarter of UK mammals face extinction [8]

Jun 12 ‘Filled to bursting with trees, woods and nature reserves’: greening the Green Belt by Friends of the Earth Innovation team [9]

Feb 4 Green Belt: the development pressure ramps up again [10]

2018

If we value rural Britain, we can’t build houses all over it, Simon Jenkins, Aug 6 [11]

2017

Kent1.jpg

Kent targeted to take huge housing hit, Sep 27 [12]

Households in southern England urged to save water after dry winter, May 5 [13]

2015

Set up to fail, November 16 [14]

Resources

Networks

  • Data for Democracy, consider joining a network such as this to work on transparency of data and fair and reasonable estimates or projections of local housing need across the UK, particularly if concerned about Overdevelopment across the South, imbalance between North/South. If anyone interested... I'd love to hear from you Philralph (talk) 07:12, 5 January 2019 (PST)

Policies

Video

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See also

Interwiki links

Drought in the United Kingdom W, 2009 Great Britain and Ireland floods W

External links


References Template:Attrib sca ref

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