CALDERDALE HOUSING CAMPAIGN

Where are we - one year on?
(July 2006)

What’s been happening since the launch of the Calderdale Housing Campaign in 2005?

  • the UDP Inspector accepted Friends of the Earth's proposal that a policy be included to give the Council to refuse housing applications on grounds of over-supply. See the Inspector's judgement and download her report - section 5
  • Will this recommendation come into force? It has been accepted by the Council, but the entire UDP now has to be adopted by the end of the month or else the process comes to a halt. Meanwhile planning permissions continue to be approved at about double the target rate!
  • And now the Regional Spatial Strategy (prepared by the Regional Assembly) is proposing to increase the required target for Calderdale even higher, in order to absorb the increased economic growth being pushed into West Yorkshire by the 'Northern Way Growth Strategy' (a government quango). Both FOE and the Calderdale Sustainability Forum objected to this plan, and it goes to public inquiry in the autumn (you can see the issues debated on Friday 29th September and Tuesday 3rd October, Metropole Hotel Leeds)
  • The Council has produced what it calls its 'Housing Strategy 2005-10' but in fact this deals mostly with the issues surrounding affordability and ignores environmentally sustainability and impacts, and overall supply. Download the strategy

So, we’re probably no further forward in achieving a genuinely sustainable housing strategy for the area.

Friday 15th July 2005

"Today we are launching a campaign, and a debate, about the future of housing in Calderdale. We want it to be sustainable and affordable, but are these objectives being swept away by a scarcely controlled housing boom?"

Housing in Calderdale: some questions

Q. Is it sustainable? Are all the houses being built turning Calderdale into a commuter suburb of Leeds and Manchester, jamming our road networks with longer and longer journeys to work? Are the new houses being built to the highest eco-standard and energy efficiency, limiting future climate change emissions, and is the existing housing stock being improved as well?

Q. Is it affordable? Where will local people, who want to both live and work locally, find a house to buy or rent, and how will they be able to afford sky-high prices? How is the Council implementing its obligation to meet housing need and requiring developers to provide a % of 'affordable' housing?

Q. Are too many houses being built? It seems that Calderdale Council has already approved enough planning permissions to meet their regional target until 2016!; but exactly how many new houses have already been sanctioned or have yet to be built? Is the Council simply intending to carry on approving ever more housing schemes; if not, what are their plans for slowing or stopping the growth?

Q. Are green sites, and sites valued by their local community, threatened by unwanted development? If the Council just keeps on approving housing development, does that encourage developers to try and push their way onto sites that should be protected? Is the Council doing enough to protect green sites and trees, and to enforce against developers who break the planning rules?

Q. Are communities losing employment sites and buildings, and important community facilities, to new housing development which will make it ever more difficult to meet community needs and aspirations, and 'keep it local'. Does the sheer scale of housing development threaten to change the character of our communities?

Q. Has Calderdale Council lost control of the process of planned housing development to market forces and the demands of property developers? How will the provision of essential infrastructure - schools, surgeries, roads and public transport - keep pace with this unplanned housing boom?

"We like to know what you think about these questions; and we'd also like some answers. Everyone's opinion is welcome - we know lots of people and groups are interested in different aspects of the subject - and we don't expect everyone to have the same view. And we'd like the campaign to be constructive; we need to develop solutions to a growing list of problems."

Anthony Rae - campaign coordinator

 

Home page

What you can do?

Launch press release

News from planning battles

The fight for the Furtex Mill site

Objectives of the Campaign

Join our discussion group

Statement by Chris McCafferty

How to respond to a housing planning application

Calderdale Council and affordable housing

Can we make new houses more sustainable?

How many new dwellings are the Council required to provide?

STOP PRESS

15th July: Council refuses huge Crow Nest, Hebden Bridge planning application

New Council housing strategy 2005-10 and affordability housing policy report