No ‘New Deal’ when it comes to Housing
Boris Johnson gave a speech in Dudley in June where he said the UK was going to ‘Build, Build, Build’ out of recession. He spoke of the government’s plan to spend on infrastructure and construction as similar to Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ of the 1930s.
Commentators and people on Twitter pointed out that the Prime Minister actually plans to spend far less than FDR. (He has put aside about a 200th as a percentage of GDP compared to what the ‘New Deal’ spent).
Though a few people were happy to go with this — up to a point. Ailbhe Rea wrote an article in the New Statesman about how Conservatives are at least ‘waking up’ to the ‘political salience’ of housing. The guests on the Financial Times’ Payne’s Politics Podcast used the announcement to compare their favourite Roosevelts.
The problem is that, even with higher spending, Boris Johnson is not offering a New Deal, particularly for housing. The Government’s proposed reform is enlarging a planning loophole known as Permitted Development Rights (or PDR).
Permitted Developments are projects that do not need planning permission from the local authority. They were added to planning law decades back; most often they applied to small single-storey extensions. In 2013, the then-Government expanded PDR to include large ‘change of use’ property developments. So people could do things like convert old (disused) office blocks into flats.
Primarily, PDR is more rights for developers; not the people living in or around the developments. ‘Terminus House’, a PD in Harlow, Essex, is considered a modern slum by many. A documentary on Youtube shows residents there living in cramped conditions — some with only one window for their whole flat — having to clean up blood in hallways. Nearby local residents have also reported much higher levels of crime since Terminus House opened.
Although Terminus House is merely one of the worst examples, space and comfort have been major issues elsewhere. According to a report — which the Government-funded in preparation for the change — only 22% of permitted developments meet the Nationally Described Space Standards. This means that, as one might expect, they are typically quite small.
On the other hand, developers have been pleased with the opportunity permitted developments have been. One, whose company owns and operates Terminus, calls the policy ‘genius’ — talking about it as one of the best things a Government could have done.
Housing Minister Robert Jenrick has similarly praised the ‘40,000 or 50,000 new properties’ that expanding Permitted Development Rights have helped build. Though his department claim to have no exact number because local authorities do not keep data on developments they do not approve.
That alone should be worrying. Housing policy, including PDs, do not appear to have had an effect on the UK’s rising homelessness. There is no evidence they are less fuel-efficient but they are not A-rated either. When the UK can be build zero carbon homes, one might consider this not the best way option for people’s futures.
COVID is likely to change the look of our high streets and towns and cities. The extension to PDR will likely give landlords a way to sell or convert their less valuable property, as retail and hospitality crumbles.
Rather than take the opportunity to create communities resilient to climate and social change, Johnson is giving a handout to an industry that has given over £11 million to his party in the last year alone. And he is calling this a ‘radical reform of planning’ along with a ‘new deal’.
A rethink in the promises American society made was at the centre of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. It is the kind of thing we could actually use — some economist have recommended a ‘Green New Deal’ to prepare us for the 21st century.
But this won’t be achieved without planning, or without reviewing the rights and capabilities we expect to see in our homes and communities. Permitted Developments will likely take us in the wrong direction; it is not a ‘new deal’ but the same old deal with an ugly extension.
Thanks for reading. I first published this article on my blog in July. To see the original version and read more pop over to Just Housing.