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Housing (Hertfordshire)

It is delightful to be here this afternoon under your chairmanship, Lady Winterton. As Conservatives, we agree that there is a need for more homes that are affordable, well designed and, more importantly, environmentally sustainable. In Hertfordshire, we accept that we must provide more houses based on local need and an acceptable level of sustainable growth, reflecting what the community wants and based on a prudent assessment of our particular environmental capacity while acknowledging our infrastructure stresses and deficits. After much consideration and a degree of pressure from the Government, the original east of England plan eventually proposed 79,600 dwellings—a figure about which I still have some serious environmental concerns. On balance, however, the community was willing to try to deliver that figure. The Government appear determined to ignore the carefully considered proposals of the local community and to ratchet up the totals. We were prepared to accept our fair share of housing, but we dispute the new and ever-escalating housing figures that are being imposed top down by the Government. I speak for many, including my local councils that have written to the Minister only this month, when I say that I am deeply unhappy about the processes and assessments—or rather lack of assessments—that have culminated in the double whammy of an inspector’s report advocating a new higher figure of 83,000 dwellings and the Secretary of State now seeking to impose a further 10,000 units on top of that already overly high number. To have truly environmentally sustainable communities, we cannot look only at the method of construction of new buildings. Let us not confuse the difference between housing demand and housing need. Yes, we have a degree of local housing need, but we live in a prosperous high demand area that, in turn, fuels an ever-increasing spiral of house prices that encourages speculative development and a booming buy-to-let market with investors holding large property portfolios. Developers are encouraged by the Government’s inflationary approach to housing figures. They appreciate their creative approach to the green belt boundary reviews and are egged on by pronouncements regarding future household and population growth and an increasingly benign planning system. They proceed to cut swathes through established communities, challenge historic street scenes and skylines, and market our green belt as building plots. Little consideration is given to the wishes of local people and their vision for their communities. Housing density and the Government’s targets are driving the relentless push to demolish older characterful houses, snatching up back gardens, gobbling up green spaces and targeting playing fields such as the King Harry playing fields in my constituency. High density is being interpreted as flats and, consequently, housing choice has been diminished, not enhanced, as family homes come down and blocks of flats rise up. The result is a rapidly changing street scene, huge increases in congestion, increasing pressure on schools, hospitals and natural resources, and a loss of local community spirit. When calculating the increased totals, the Minister does not seem even to have taken into account the particular economic activity of our area and its employment opportunities. The Office for National Statistics labour force, resident and workplace survey of 2001 estimated that 68,681 people live in the area of St. Albans, yet only 51,206 people work there. That position contributes to huge numbers of people who commute daily on congested roads and on trains that are crammed in cattle-truck conditions. According to the most recent east of England plan, the projected job growth for the whole of Hertfordshire until 2021 is 64,700, yet the Minister wishes to place 93,000 units there. According to the Office for National Statistics’ unemployment data figures, we are fortunate to have a current regional unemployment rate of 20 per cent. below the United Kingdom average unemployment rate and, in St. Albans, the current unemployment rate is 46 per cent. less than the UK average unemployment rate. We have low unemployment and a highly skilled work force that looks to London and neighbouring cities for its employment. The high house prices mean that that situation is liable to continue and that more market-led housing will only compound the current trend to buy into our county and commute. We are therefore naturally concerned that the Government, through their lack of rigorous analysis at every level, are indeed fuelling a property-led project, thus encouraging commuting, putting strain on local transport systems and not creating balanced, sustainable communities supported by local jobs, underpinned by adequate infrastructure and sympathetic to the local environment.