Residents in the high-demand areas of south-east England are more supportive of new housing developments than is commonly assumed, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation survey has found.
Researchers spoke to 1428 residents in the Home Counties towns of Aylesbury, Maidenhead, Chatham and Gillingham. They found a minority of locals automatically rejected the idea of new schemes. Most were prepared to consider some form of development.

The survey, conducted by Cambridge Architectural Research, found 40% agreed the South-east had to grow, 24% said growth was unnecessary and 36% were unsure.

But only 28% agreed that more homes needed to be built, 26% were not sure and 46% disagreed.

Residents had no clear preference for one type of development, but densification, urban extension and new towns were preferred slightly more than the ideas of expanding villages in rural areas or creating new settlements (developments of 2000-4000 homes).

Stephen Platt, co-author of the Housing Futures: Informed Public Opinion report, said the research exposed some contradictions in people's attitude towards development but there was no "blanket opposition" to land being used for housebuilding.

He said: "This survey shows that nimbyism is far from rife. The options favoured by a representative sample of locals were for balanced developments."

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

The report is at www.jrf.org.uk