Something to Crow about

The clear view from Canary Wharf of a bright summer’s day must have helped Professor Steven Crow and Inspector Rosamund Whittaker to propose a logical and coherent planning strategy for the South East region. Their report following the EiP held in June this year is a bombshell. Nothing like it has happened in the South East region for 30 years since the first strategic plan was published which led to the growth of towns such as Milton Keynes, Reading, Basingstoke and Aylesbury. Professor Crow has laid bare for all to see the inexorable link between the adequate provision of housing and regional economic success - a link so far ignored by the South East Economic Development Agency. Professor Crow has taken a scythe to a whole crop of planning shibboleths that until now have seldom been questioned. These are the principal recommendations:

• sufficient houses should be available for all who wish to live in the region;

• a more realistic target of 50% of all new development should be built on previously developed land in urban areas;

• attempts to restrain economic growth to the west of London should be abandoned;

• recognition of the role of the region as an entire engine of growth in the national economy;

• the policy designation of areas of economic pressure should be deleted and replaced by a policy which seeks out smaller local areas where road congestion and labour shortages can be tackled positively;

• RPG should make a firm commitment to the public expenditure necessary to secure the objectives of urban renaissance; and

• extend the urban renaissance concept to encompass suburban areas.

I don’t minimise the implications of these new housing figures for local communities but the report sensibly identifies a whole series of sub-regions which can accommodate this additional housing development if planning takes place in advance and necessary infrastructure requirements are secured. These are:

• South Hampshire and the Solent cities

• Thames gateway

• Ashford and East Kent

• Milton Keynes

• Bedford and Northampton triangle

• Crawley/Gatwick/M23 area

• Stanstead Airport/M11 corridor

These sub-regions could absorb much of the growth and also accommodate the economic innovations such as the 30 enterprise hubs proposed by SEEDA.

Already the retaliation has begun with groups such as CPRE joining in a chorus of disapproval but Redrow Group managing director, Paul Pedley hit the nail on the head when he said: “Additional homes offer the best means of preventing overheating in the region’s market and would ensure interest rates remain low. If we don’t sort out the supply and demand equilibrium, the Bank of England will raise interest rates as it did last month to prevent overheating in the South East.”

The other more cynical, political view is that the report will be ignored by Government. John Gummer has concluded: “the truth is that the electoral arithmetic is absolute. The seats in the South East that the Conservatives need to win are seats where people are implacably opposed to development. They are, of course, also the seats that Labour needs to defend. So neither party is going to look with any favour on the idea of more than a million new homes where voters don’t want them.”

What the conservatives have to face up to though is that this regional success is a function of many of the enterprise policies instigated during their 18-year reign. To ignore the consequences could alienate the very people who wish to move into the region. Householders may not have a vote in the area where they wish to move but they do still have a vote and housing could become a national election issue.

If John Prescott puts this report with the best ideas from SEEDA’s economic strategy, the region could become one of the European Union’s top 10 performing regions. Nothing less will be good enough.

Copies of the report are available price £12.00 from DETR, tel 01483 882267.