Housing and planning reforms could lead to greater social inequality, new report warns

Published by Fiona Mannion for TCPA in Housing and also in Central Government, Communities, Local Government

The first report to consider the Government’s housing and planning reforms together will be launched today, Tuesday 22^nd March 2011, by leading planning think-tank, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The report, a ‘Policy analysis of housing and planning reform’, seeks to help the Government align its policy priorities for increasing housing provision, re-balancing the economy and increasing growth within the overall goal of achieving sustainable development. In doing so it raises two major potential social consequences from the reforms as currently set out.

Firstly, the report concludes that the long-terms patterns of spatial inequalities in England are likely to be reinforced by a combination of the end of regional planning and policy and an incentive scheme for housing which rewards high-market-demand areas. This may have long-term implications for the distribution of England’s population. However, the report acknowledges the extent of this impact is hard to gauge without further study.

Secondly, there will be shorter-term impacts on a significant number of low-income households which may intensify social segregation.

Kate Henderson, TCPA Chief Executive said:

“The potential inequalities of the housing and planning reforms play out at both a city scale, in terms of possible concentrations of deprivation, and at an England-wide scale in terms of reinforcing, rather than mediating, long-term regional inequalities.”

“What is most striking is that the planning system – outside of London, which retains its regional London Plan - will have to deal with these new challenges at a time when both the framework and the resources have been significantly reduced.”

Individual authorities who find themselves net receivers of displaced low income families will have to deal with these pressures to plan for and provide homes on a purely localised basis, with only voluntary relationships with their neighbours and the wider sub-region.

Dr Hugh Ellis, TCPA Chief Planner and lead author of the report said:

“The net result of these reforms will be period of uncertainty in how we plan for housing. Ultimately, we as a society will have to confront the need for planning structures and incentives that reinforce sustainable and socially just outcomes, rather than potentially undermining them.”

The report acknowledges that the previous planning system had proved controversial for many communities. These places felt little ownership over the decisions surrounding housing provision. The Government was right to identify a lack of local legitimacy as a key problem in need of reform.

John Hocking, Executive Director of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust said:

“The Coalition Government is proposing very significant changes to planning and housing policy. These changes are complex and fast-moving and have major implications for how we provide for all types of housing, and particularly housing for those on limited incomes.

“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has supported this analysis report to inform the ongoing debate about the future of planning and housing in England by drawing together the various planning and housing reform measures in order to try to understand the implications for housing provision”

The paper draws on analysis from organisations and individuals who contributed towards the report.  

The report concludes with a number of recommendations around housing needs assessment, strengthening strategic planning, smartening the housing incentives and aligning them with planning, rebuilding and repairing existing communities and re-balancing England to promote growth across the country.