Michael Gove’s major housing speech in London this morning alongside the new parallel housing observations by the Prime Minister release dual emotions, Joy and dismay. The return journey out of Alice in Wonderland’s never, never garden is starting. At last. This reversal (because Cambridge 2040 is the explicit clue, the rest us fluff) is welcome with outstretched arms. But the dark ignorance, or perhaps simple planning inexperience of two very senior political leaders is startling.
First, the important good news is that neither Sunak or Gove are running a away from the idea of major housing and employment growth around Cambridge despite blood-curdling threats from Anthony Browne the local MP. And there is more good news. Gove says there will be substantial green space to rival London’s royal parks and a new national park in the wider area as well. If this means privately owned open countryside and green belt areas will be opened up to become rural open space to match and exceed the urban public open space local residents will spot one piece of good news for their families.
And possibly some more good news. Gove says the government’s infrastructure levy will make sure that when there is development the uplift in land value will go to the local community, adding currently too much goes to the landowner. Labour’s Lisa Nandy says much the same. As posted earlier, if you want to create anger, , thence delay the supply of new housing introducing legislation to take away legitimate hope value from land owners, this is a sure fire method. It is also unfair. But if both main parties agree to do so, open market valuation assumptions will change. At which point we move into uncharted waters.
And second, now to the duff news. Most of today’s headlines are not necessarily bad, just meaningless. Building in city centres is fine. Going up and going out can be welcome in a few major urban centres, but not in most towns where residents are accustomed to the existing modest vertical scale. Look at the Woking, Surrey example, which of course is typical of where the demand for new homes is very high. I doubt there will be much welcome for building upwards in the centre of Cambridge either.
Or let’s build on the brownfield sites. No one will disagree. Are there any in Cambridge, or Woking? In central Reading, around the station, now the western terminus for the Elisabeth Line, sites yards away from it, simply ideal for housing are now going to build. I sold the first one over twenty years ago. It is starting now! Some thought will quickly show that putting brownfield sites together is a long, laborious and difficult process with pitfalls at every stage. How do you shorten this gestation period. Lots of public sector funding will might help. Of course the scheme, in strict private sector viability terms will no longer be viable. More intervention by the state?
Both main parties rightly put locally based public support at the heart of their thinking about new house building. The Prime Minister says ‘No one is doing mass house building in Cambridge, this is about adding a new urban quarter to Cambridge’, adding development should be done ‘in dialogue with ,local communities’. And then he is quoted as saying building new homes does not come at the expense of the countryside. Well 90% of it privately owned with public access denied, barring the occasional public right of way so just how important is this totem pole? He goes on to say ‘I don’t want to concrete over the countryside- that’s something that is.very special about Britain’.‘. Yes, he is right. England’s green and pleasant land. But the reality is that for most people the open countryside is sterile. They can drive past it. They can fly over it. But they can’t go on it. Seems an odd priority for national leader.
Winning local support is the missing link. Michael Gove cannot find it. But he lives in hope. He says
‘I believe in taking people with us, and I believe the vision we’ve outlined is one that will command support.’. Indeed he is very sure ‘we’ll find a compelling way forward’. And finally ‘..it will be the case ‘that Tory backbenchers’ and others realise his plan is in the national interest ‘ once they have had the chance to read it’. As I spent several years until recently trying to do just this with a well known senior Tory backbencher without any success, I do not share Gove’s optimistic view.
But there is a way to win local support. The electorate must understand the context: why we need many more new homes. Growth, an ageing population and immigration. Local residents must also understand why we need more homes near them, often because they are enjoying the benefits of local prosperity growth brings and can appreciate the new amenities it will bring to their lives. It cannot be done on a short term basis, which is why political parties must now find common ground. Look at the achievements of the Commission for New Towns. Look too at the achievements of the landed estates, for example the Crown Estate and their ability over generations to create premium values, by building places people want to visit, want to live and want to pass time.
Ian Campbell
24 July 2023
