Written evidence submitted by Save Greater Manchester’s Greenbelt [FPS 132]
Save Greater Manchester’s Greenbelt (SGMGB) was formed in response to constituent’s concern over a regional housing plan, the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF).
SGMGB is an umbrella group for greenbelt and greenspace groups across GM. Our group provides a platform to share ideas, plan campaigns for local community engagement and to lobby our elected representatives.
to date our group has
In addition to preserving Green Belt we have further areas of interest such as air pollution, the climate emergency, affordable housing, sustainable transport, and equitable communities.
We are not planning experts but to understand the impact GMSF will have on GM we have had to navigate national and local planning policy and a spatial plan document. We do not believe the Governments proposals are the right approach. The reforms aim to centralise the planning system at national level and remove community participation and right to reply/ appeal at local level.
You hear the adage “an Englishman’s home is his castle”. Well, no more so than during a pandemic but just as important is the community we want to all live in.
Who knows their community better than the people who live there? Planners and developers renaming places that have historical significance for the people that live in these areas.
Participation in planning currently doesn’t feel like it is accessible to all. The systems are complex, and the language and systems seem to be from a bygone age. The White Paper is just adding to this inequality by not including the community at an early stage of participation. People with money, education, access, and time can navigate the system making it inequitable.
We all know that our economy and environment are key to the long-term future success of this country. If we want a sustainable future than we need to brave and bold and not just level up by investing in the same old, same old.
What kind of future do we want for the child who was born during a national lockdown and will be 18 in 2038. The length of some of the plans in Greater Manchester. Rushing forward with these plans for the White Paper now will be a colossal mistake that we will not be able to rectify easily.
Planning needs to change BUT not without input into
Why not make the current system work better. Let us look at targets for building
We believe the government target of building 300,000 homes per year is based on political aspiration rather than an evidenced need.
If we look at the accepted way of planning for housing need, Household projections (2016), the ONS tells us that around 165,000 houses are required if every single new household in the country that formed was given a house, yet the real household growth figure is 147,000 forming every year which leaves 18,000 more housing units than needed.
If we further look at actual housing stock, this has grown by more than 168,000 units per year. If we give every single new household that forms their own house, we will still have 3,000 extra houses per year. We currently have a surplus of homes over households of 1.1 million.
We are building more than enough houses. Since 2009, 2,564,600 houses have been granted permission yet only 1,530,680 have been built out, this suggests that the planning system is not an obstacle but the issues lie with land owners and developers using the permissions to trade or use land as an investment asset.
Apologies for the brief nature of our input but we did want to make you aware of the importance of the work you are going. Members of our group would like to speak to the committee about the work they are doing