Family friendly housing is the future for towns and cities » Housing » 24dash.com

New family friendly housing policies announced by the Government today were welcomed by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) as a key benchmark to secure quality in the drive to deliver thousands of urgently needed new homes.

The Government's vision for more and better housing, set out in the new planning policy statement (PPS 3), will give local councils more powers to influence their local housing market, subject to higher sustainability standards in the face of climate change.

The TCPA welcomed the encouragement of more houses with gardens, which are good for families as well as the environment, but stressed that local authorities will need extra resources in order to raise design standards and respond to market pressures.

TCPA Chief Executive Gideon Amos said:

"This is a major step forward. Giving a clear lead on higher design standards, whilst giving more flexibility to local communities on how they wish their towns and cities to develop, sends absolutely the right signal to housing providers, planners and developers. 

"The Government has rightly removed crude and artificial measures such as centralised rules on density, and the shape of development locally, in favour of the opportunity to tackle climate and biodiversity head on whether this through is urban, suburban or new settlement development. 

"While a certain number of smaller flats are needed, especially in response to the growth in single person households, these are currently dominating the market leaving little choice for families with children. For this reason, we welcome the proposal for local authorities to determine housing densities and brownfield use. In terms of attempting to control housing production in detail the Government is right to allow the private sector to determine their own product to meet local market conditions whilst making more detailed demands of subsidised housing.

"It is right to devolve more responsibility to local authorities to develop tailor-made policies to suit the needs of their own communities. However, this must be in the context of clear national priorities which set out how best to meet the twin challenges of housing need and climate change. "

New environmental standards for housing are necessary to create the economies of scale needed to boost new climate-proofing technologies, as well as lowering fuel bills and improving quality of life and the environment overall.

The TCPA also welcomed the new flexibility for councils and developers in determining urban form – whether new towns, or urban extensions for example, and a move away from a crude sequential test. However, the condition on this must be that all forms of development meet high sustainability standards tested through Strategic Environmental Assessments, which will be set out in further detail in forthcoming climate change policy. 

As a social justice and environmental charity, the TCPA campaigns for more homes to be built to tackle homelessness and social exclusion. However, as well as achieving higher environmental design standards, new homes must also cater for different social needs, including that of families, as well as older and disabled people.

Key factors fuelling household growth, which is causing a housing shortfall on a scale to match the pensions crisis, include our aging population, a growing number of single person households, and rising divorce rates.

At least 200,000 new homes are therefore needed each year to tackle the spectre of homelessness and social exclusion. This is a significant increase on the current rate of just 170,000 per year being built. In addition, around 80 per cent of new homes currently being built are one and two bedroom flats, which fail to contribute towards creating mixed communities or meet the particular needs of children.

The TCPA continues to warn however accompanying studies required from local Government on Housing Land availability and Housing Market Assessments could be time consuming if not handled properly and will be calling for a simpler approach as guidance is further developed.