Over the past two years, statements by the Conservatives about what they would do in power have generally been ignored as irrelevant, given their unpopularity. Now with the next election appearing to be rather more open, their proposals take on more significance.
They were set out in the document Believing in Britain launched at the beginning of September. It says Conservative government would reform planning and housebuilding policy "to protect the rights of identities of local communities". This, apparently, means abolishing housebuilding targets and enabling local authorities to insist that developers use local styles of architecture and materials to prevent the spread of identikit homes.
Despite these restrictions the red tape which makes the planning system "inaccessible and expensive" will be cut, the system will be streamlined in rundown areas, while at the same time local people will get the right to appeal against "certain major developments".
In contrast to this extension of local rights, a new model of regeneration company will be created with strong powers to take decisions on local and national government functions.
There will be a big shift to brownfield development and the "worst tower blocks or large estates" will be removed. Oh, and we'll have a more varied urban landscape with mixed tenure housing and enterprise.
There's also a curious statement that "crime reduction and improvements in the standards of education are pre-requisites for any major investment in housing or new buildings and job creation" - sounds like housing and regeneration will have to wait some time
Evaluating Egan
Even just a few months ago, apart from the few early converts, there seemed to be no great feeling for Egan. People were getting up to speed on the concepts but without any great enthusiasm.
But that does appear to be changing. There seems to be a growing acceptance in the housebuilding and development industry that the Egan agenda does have real potential to reduce conflict and provide a vastly improved environment in which to work better.
This was expressed by John Clark of Hexagon Housing Association at the National Housing Federation conference in September following a speech by housing minister Nick Raynsford. Clark said he thought that a lot of people in associations and the building industry have had to begin to rethink their cultures, and this was bringing about a sea change.
Not everywhere, though. It had not got through to some local authorities where partnership was not one of equals.
Raynsford suggested that the Egan challenge to the construction industry was far greater than those in the Housing Green Paper and he believed that the industry had risen to those challenges "remarkably".
He stressed that the Government had a "very demanding" modernisation agenda for local authorities and pointed out that with Egan initially, there had been a very large degree of scepticism. That had changed dramatically. He was hopeful that the task force - the fourth strand of the agenda - would shift thinking in local authorities
Delays in the systems
But if Raynsford is winning the battle with the providers, on innovation the public generally still has to be persuaded of the benefits. That appears to include councillors - anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that memories of the systems and timber frame disasters of the past are holding back progress.
The stories involve planning applications for two (separate) schemes involving lightweight steel and timber frame construction. In both cases, committees deferred decisions after individual councillors raised concerns about the construction methods - the planners themselves were fully supportive.
Observers were convinced that fear of timber frame was behind the decision to defer approval on the timber frame scheme.
In the other, the question was asked whether the steel frame could be guaranteed for 35 years. As the architect rightly pointed out, this was an issue for others, but it does seem that despite all the explanations and assurances the members deferred a decision based on their fears of the past.
Incidentally, HAPM - the housing association mutual insurer - has no problem with such schemes. It has already provided its usual 35-year cover to Ealing Family Housing Association for its lightweight steel frame scheme at Wilton Road, Reading.
Source
Building Homes
