If a tenth of designated Green Belt land around Greater London
were used for new housing, 160,000 new homes could be produced -
a significant contribution to solving the urgent housing crisis
in the capital, argues a
new report from
the Institute of Economic Affairs.
The report, “Delivering More Homes:
Radical action to unblock the system”, argues that the
current planning system is not working, and urgent reform is
needed to increase the housing supply and extend consumer
choice.
Co-authors Keith Boyfield and Robert Wickham promote plans
to liberate the private sector to work with communities,
investors and entrepreneurs to solve the housing crisis and
produce the homes and facilities that are needed.
The housing crisis,
explained
• Governments have continuously failed to produce
the 250,000 to 300,000 news homes needed every year.
• House prices in the UK have increased
three-and-a-half fold in real times since 1980, compared to the
eurozone and in the US, where they have only increased roughly
one-and-a-half fold over the same period.
• There is a strong preference for home ownership, with
some 86 per cent of survey respondents indicating this preference
for their accommodation. Yet the rate of home ownership is on the
decline, from roughly 70 per cent in 2005, to roughly 63 per cent
today.
• Labour mobility is being reduced because of home
shortages in areas with high house prices. The heavy burden of rent
on younger households poorly impacts the economy in places like
London, which relies on competitiveness and the import of
talent.
Tackling the Green Belt
• The size of the Green Belt has more than doubled
since 1979 - its total size growing from 721,500 hectares to
1,634,700 hectares.
• This amounts to roughly 13 per cent of the land
area of England, and covers one and a half times as much land as
our towns and cities put together.
• The designation of Green Belt land is not
attributed based on environmental quality; rather, it effectively
represents a form of ‘discriminatory zoning’, keeping people
living in urban areas away from the Home Counties.
• There is enough Green Belt land within the confines
of Greater London - 32,500 hectares - to build 1.6 million
average-size houses. Using a tenth of that land for building
could produce 160,000 new homes - a significant response to the
current under-supply of housing.
Tackling land availability
• Six per cent of land in England and Wales remains
in public ownership - amounting to roughly 900,000 hectares.The
Ministry of Defence owns approximately 170,000 hectares, while
the National Health Service owns another 4,500 hectares.
• In urban local authorities, where pressure to build
is high, 15 per cent of all public land is owned by the public
sector. In some parts of the country, including Brighton and
Barking, more than 40 per cent of all land is owned by the public
sector.
• Disappointing progress has been made with public
land disposals for building; a National Audit Office report into
the number of new homes built on public land sold between 2011
and 2015 found that a mere 200 homes had been built.
Key recommendations
• All Green Belt boundaries should be reviewed,
starting urgently with areas that do not have adequate land
supply for the next ten years to meet known population
requirements.
• Give early release to Green Belt land in the
Birmingham, Manchester, and London areas that are within walking
distance (roughly 800 metres) of rail or underground
stations.
• Increase private sector initiatives, which may
include village expansion schemes or building new communities
that are embedded into the area’s Development Plan (also known as
‘Pink Planning’).
• Compulsory purchase procedures could be reversed
and instigated by the private sector, to encourage Disposal
Orders to release public land for the purpose of building.
Commenting on the report, co-author Keith Boyfield
said:
“Politicians are fond of talking about how to tackle
our alarming housing crisis - yet little is
delivered.
“This new report shows how redundant public sector land
can be released to meet this pressing need. The Green Belt -
which has more than doubled in size since 1979 - can be used to
better house our rapidly rising population, and by adopting of a
bottom-up, community-sensitive approach, we can create new
villages and towns that people will clamour to live and work
in.”
Commenting on the report, co-author Robert Wickham
said:
‘This paper shows how in a post-Brexit world, more
homes can be created by a general presumption in favour of
development, enabling communities and entrepreneurs to work
together.
“The creation of choice for consumers will improve the
quality of development to the benefit of urban and rural
areas.”
Notes to editors:
For media enquiries please contact Kate Andrews, Associate
Director: kandrews@iea.org.uk
020 7799 8925 or 07476 915 072
To download the IEA’s paper ‘Delivering More Homes: Radical
action to unlock the system’, click here.
