The Issues
With a growing population and shrinking household sizes we clearly need more homes.
The Government says it wants a very large increase in the building of new homes. In B&NES, the RSS projections say that 15,500 new homes are needed by 2026 in addition to the 6000 already proposed in the current Local Plan.
At least 1500 of these could be built on ‘urban extensions’ to Bath, absorbing the villages of Newton St Loe, Englishcombe, Middle Wood, Varnham Wood and possibly Southstoke.
Housebuilding covers more countryside than any other kind of development and creates environmental damage.
Sprawling housing estates in the countryside or in new suburbs (urban extensions of existing towns and villages) causes environmental damage by fostering car dependency as people are have to travel further to reach work places, schools, shops, medical facilities etc.
Housebuilding in the countryside produces:
- more climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions
- increased road traffic and congestion
- more strain on water sources
- increased quarrying in the countryside.
Why do developers prefer ‘greenfield’ sites?
Currently, VAT is charged on redeveloping existing buildings. No VAT is charged for building on untouched green fields. Developers prefer to build on greenfields because it’s cheaper, easier and more profitable to build on open countryside.
CAUS will be asking:
- Are the economic projections on which housing numbers have been worked out correct?
- Are the numbers of new homes that are proposed more than we actually need?
- Will the growth in homes reflect a parallel increase in jobs?
- Will the growth in homes reflect a parallel increase in investment in local infrastructure – such as roads and sewers, and services such as hospitals, roads?
Building on green fields should be a last resort
Land is a finite resource – once it’s gone it can never be retrieved. We must use it wisely. By building over precious countryside we create more and more urban sprawl. We owe it our children to preserve our precious countryside from bricks, concrete and paving stones. Countryside that is built on is lost forever.