Local battles in the war on endless development | Letters

Helen Geake on a win-win situation for developers, Christopher Tanner on pressuring the government in the run-up to Cop26, Evan Bayton on over-urbanisation in the north-west, and Francine Bates on efforts to protect an arcadian part of LondonRos Coward is right that developers have the upper hand in our planning system (The government’s relentless push for development is destroying rural England, 17 February), but it’s not only because they chase big profits on large houses. Here in mid-Suffolk, the government’s algorithm forces us to accept over two-and-a-half new homes for each new household in the district over the next 15 years, in the misguided view that houses are like potatoes: a glut means a lower price.There’s no way to make the developers build, so they do it very slowly, so that the market can “absorb” these houses and keep the prices high. If they build slowly, the council won’t meet its targets for housing growth, so will have to grant even more planning consents – thus ballooning the value of the developers’ landholdings. It’s a win-win situation for developers, and councils can do nothing about it except hope that the next general election will bring in a government ready to reform the planning system.Helen GeakeWoolpit, Suffolk Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/18/local-battles-in-the-war-on-endless-development #housing #planning_policy #conservatives #hs2 #conservation #construction_industry #business #communities #environment #politics #society #uk_news