4A.7B - Planning Policies and other such Nonsense
Rate and type of development (planning laws, house building targets, housing affordability, permission for 'fracking') affecting economic regeneration of both rural and urban regions. (A: Government actions may prioritise national over local needs and opinions.)
The UK has a number of planning policies that are important in the context of regeneration:
- Greenbelt land, which surrounds most larger cities, cannot be built on. It is protected green space, usually farmland.
- Conservation areas like National Parks have strict planning regulations that limit the development of all but small-scale residential and commercial schemes.
- Planning permission is often dependent on a scheme including 'planning gain' in other words a scheme for new private homes might be given permission if it includes a certain percentage of affordable homes or improvements to existing roads or parks, paid for by the developer.
- Planning laws allow for some developments that are 'in the national interest' such as fracking for shale gas, or quarrying, or new road building, even when these would not normally be allowed.
- National house-building targets set at 240,000 new homes per year in 2007 and revised to 200,000 per year for 2010-2015 (these targets are never met.)
A very important context for understanding regeneration is the UK's shortage of homes and very high house prices. Demand for housing is very high in London, the South-East and East of England. This means house prices here are high - and in many locations unaffordable for most people. (The average house price in London is more than £450,000, and is about £300,000 in the South-East.)
The housing shortage in the UK means:
- There was a shortage of about 500,000 new homes by 2016.
- 240,000 homes need to be built each year to meet current demand.
- For the last ten years, only 100,000-150,000 new homes have been built each year.
However, planning laws like greenbelt policy make releasing new land for housing very hard to achieve. In addition, most demand is actually in the South and East, the areas with the least capacity to find new land for housing. Lack of ability to build new housing can prevent economic development and regeneration by limiting the opportunities for new people to move into an area.