The Economist - USA (2021-07-17)

50 The Economist July 17th 2021
Britain

House-building

Blot on the landscape

T

o the westof  the  road,  a  housing  es­

tate  blossoms  behind  the  hedgerows.

Identikit  boxes  bestride  gravel  drives;  the

gardens  are  festooned  with  decking.  The

eastern side of this road in Wiltshire is an­

other  England:  rolling  fields  where  cattle

stare  down  traffic.  But  that  idyll  is  being

encroached on, too. At one end of the road,

two  new  estates  near  completion;  at  the

other, a third welcomes its first residents.

Locals  bemoan  a  damaged  environment

and homeless newts. But in this competi­

tion between two Englands, it seems clear

which is winning. 

In the key battleground of London and

the south­east, however, housing develop­

ers  are  facing  stiffer  resistance.  After  de­

cades  of  demand  far  outstripping  supply,

Britain  is  once  again  building  lots  of

homes, but not yet as many as the govern­

ment  wants—and,  worse,  not  in  the  right

places. It wants to force councils in popu­

lar,  pricey  regions  to  allow  more  develop­

ment, but is wavering in the face of elector­

al opposition. At stake is not just Britain’s

A changein 2012 madeiteasiertobuildon

farmlandneartowns,theeffectsofwhich

canalreadybeseeninplacessuchasWilt­

shire.AccordingtoResidentialAnalysts,a

research firm,over thepast decadethe

pricepaidperplotbythebighousebuilders

stayedsteadyorevenfell.Thissuggests

thatsupplyconstraintscausedbyover­re­

strictiveplannershavenotbeenreflected

inthepriceofland,saysNealHudson,the

firm’sfounder.

In 2013 rulesaboutredevelopingexist­

ingbuildings were loosened,which en­

couragedtheconversionofderelictware­

housesincitycentresintoflats.Andlast

yearMrJohnsonreiterateda previousTory

promisetoallowdeveloperstobuildhigh­

er.A subsequentboominsuchprojects

showsthat localauthorities hadindeed

beenactingasabrake ondevelopment,

saysAnthonyBreachoftheCentreforCit­

ies,a think­tank.

Even after these reforms, however,

plannersoftenstoplocalsupplyrisingin

responsetolocaldemand.TheLocalGov­

ernmentAssociation(lga),atrade body

forcouncils,arguesthatnineoutoften

planningapplications are approved.But

that disguises wide regional variation.

Councilswithin commutingdistance of

Londonstillblockmuchdevelopment.Ac­

cordingtotheCentreforCities,overa fifth

ofurbanneighbourhoodsoutsidecitycen­

treshavebuiltnonewhousessince2011.

Gettinglots more housesbuilt,saysMr

MELKSHAM, WILTSHIRE

New housing is changing the contours ofthecountryside—andofpolitics

→Alsointhissection

51 Riseoftheeco-NIMBY

— Bagehotisaway

urban and rural landscape, but its political

landscape, too.

In 2017 Theresa May, then prime minis­

ter,  reiterated  a  long­standing  but  never­

met target of 300,000 new homes per year

for England. Between April 2019 and March

2020,  244,000  were  built,  the  most  since

1987. That followed six years of net increas­
es in the housing stock. But many were in
cheaper areas, such as the south­west and
west  Midlands,  and  not  enough  were  in
London and the south­east, where already­
high  prices  and  projected  population
growth suggest expansion is most needed.
The  population  of  East  Sussex,  for  exam­
ple, has grown by 9% over the past decade
and  is  expected  to  grow  by  8%  over  the
coming  one.  But  its  housing  stock  has  in­
creased  by  just  5.8%  since  2010.  Last  year
Mrs  May’s  successor,  Boris  Johnson,  pro­
posed  a  big  overhaul  of  the  planning  sys­
tem, both to hit the national target and to
rebalance where houses are built. 
Planning rules have already been loos­
ened in several ways over the past decade.

— Read more at: Economist.com/Britain