Fill a Field vs Brand New Towns
Thursday 26th January 2023
I cannot take credit for the phrase ‘fill a field’ though I think it a splendid way to describe the housing developments we see these days. It was a colleague of mine Hannah, who coined the phrase and I have her full permission to milk it dry.
With our population increasing at about 250-300,000 per annum and our home-building consistently running at sub 200,000 p.a. we are all aware of the intense shortage of housing, especially in London and the South East.
We also all despair at the Govt’s. continued inability to sort out our sclerotic and frankly warped planning system.
We have allowed the notion that every developer should build a certain amount of ‘affordable’ housing with every development and in the process created a system with years of wrangling and delay.
The rationale is to integrate social housing with expensive homes to create a more equal society and prevent ghettoisation of council housing areas. There are perfectly reasonable arguments to support this – Paris has some great examples of Ghetto’s - and how not to do it.
However, like most socialist ideals, making developers build social housing doesn’t work. The net effect of the delays and under-building means the poorest and the young in society suffer the most - unable to find a decent home and to create a stable environment in which to flourish and bring up children.
Local Authorities, trying to get out of building housing themselves insist on foisting disproportionate amounts of social obligation onto developers, who in response dig their heels in until they can agree a level which will make a particular project viable.
This is pure laziness on the Council’s part because they can borrow money from Central Govt. at very preferential rates and should do so to build social housing themselves. The (below market) rents they then charge will still be enough to service the debt.
I am not a top-down Govt. sort of guy but I do think the nation has to choose about 10 sites around the South East to build Brand New Towns - BNT’s.
There are three pre-requisites:
1. Not on a flood plain
2. On a railway line.
3. Near a good road.
I frequently flick past Ashford in Kent as I come off at Junction 10 of the M20.
Ashford is in a great spot for transport links. Fast train to London and the M20 - less fast at the moment because of inexplicable ‘roadworks’- but still well served.
There are a lot of new housing developments ‘filling fields’ around Ashford, and this is good as the housing is needed.
However, they are sprawling soulless suburbs box -built largely with travel by car being a necessity. Hardly green.
10 minutes South of Ashford (by train or road) is the village of Ham Street. There is a beautiful ancient protected wood to the East, accessible to the public 24/7.
Residents of the aforementioned hapless village will hate me for saying this but….it would be a great spot to build a completely new town.
As a village, Ham St is quite sweet with a passable pub but it is far too small to warrant its own railway station.
It is on a gentle hill overlooking Romney Marches - a flood plain by any other name.
A BNT could be built on the non-descript farmland around the wood and with a new bespoke town centre just to the North of the railway station.
Well planned, with flats and houses, schools and shops linked by cycle ways and perhaps electric trams, it could potentially be a 21st Century version of Welwyn Garden City. A conurbation of which its residents are rightly proud.
Clearly, it will take some Central Govt. muscle to force through BNT’s.
The Tories have not been up to it. Will Labour be any better? Don’t hold your breath.
Until next time.
PB
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