Letter: There Is No Easy Planning Solution For Guildford

Published on: 29 Nov, 2017
Updated on: 29 Nov, 2017

From Fiona White

Lib Dem county councillor for Guildford West

I read the Martin Giles’ opinion piece, Was It a Good Day Or A Bad Day for Democracy in Guildford? with interest. I agree with a lot of what is said, especially the comments about the misleading Conservative election campaign in 2015. I am sure many people voted for a party they thought of as saviours of the green belt, only to be let down once the votes had been counted.

As said, a lot of the Local Plan proposals have been driven by central government policy but that is not something which has happened recently. I served as a borough councillor for many years, including time as chairman of the then Housing & Health Committee. I know from that experience that the issue of social housing in Guildford, and so many other parts of the country, stems back to the Thatcher administration and the selling off of council houses.

The sales themselves were not a bad idea; they allowed people to own houses for the first time. However, that government was so opposed to social housing that they would not allow the sale proceeds to be reinvested in new council properties.

There were times when the council was holding millions of pounds from council house sales while the Housing Needs Register grew year after year. Ever since, properties owned by councils and housing associations have been sold off under the Right to Buy (RtB) with no replacements. Many of the homes bought under RtB are now being sold for sums which are unaffordable by many young people born in Guildford.

Councils can only work within what central government lays down. What is really needed is a radical change to government policy. Councils should be allowed to borrow against their current housing assets and to use that money to build new homes for rent by people on the housing list.

I understand that Guildford Borough Council is already building small pockets of council housing but it is nowhere need enough to meet the needs. Of course, if those properties can then be bought under RtB the availability for people in housing need would only be short-term.

There is no easy answer for somewhere like Guildford. This is where the jobs and growth is. People want to move here from other parts of the country as well as overseas because of the opportunities here. Failing to provide housing only makes the issue of house prices even worse and even fewer local young people would be able to buy here.

Martin Giles may say that he doesn’t want his sons to inherit Guildford under this local plan. Many of my residents in Park Barn & Westborough who have spoken to me don’t want their children to be driven away because of house prices.

Responses to Letter: There Is No Easy Planning Solution For Guildford

A Atkinson Reply

November 29, 2017 at 9:49 pm

But what is proposed in the Local Plan, supported by the Lib Dem leader in Guildford, won’t help local young people being “able to buy here”.

Prices are driven by the ability to pay and not by the level of supply. Help to buy, cheap credit, buy to let mortgages, overseas investment cash are the reasons why prices are so high. Giving planning for lots of buildings won’t help with affordability. Those who claim it will cannot be trusted with our finances and our borough.

This should be very easy to understand. This plan will solve nothing apart from another £100m bonus for the major house building bosses.
Lisa Wright Reply

November 29, 2017 at 10:55 pm

We could be really sceptical and think that perhaps they want to build expensive executive housing to encourage more higher bracket taxpayers into the area. This would create a nice stamp duty income for central government, great profits and subsequent corporation tax receipts from the developers and Guildford could retain its high net worth.

These well-off residents could also keep our restaurants and shops trading.

Am I being too cynical?
A Atkinson Reply

November 30, 2017 at 10:04 am

https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2017/oct/21/help-to-buy-property-new-build-price-rise

Help to buy is fueling house price inflation.
Consolidation of the buidling sector means that builders are starving the market of supply but profits are skyrocketing.

Effectively £600m of our taxes payers money going to the bosses of just one building company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/psn/11818520/Building-bosses-at-Persimmon-to-net-600m.html

http://www4.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/sites/shu.ac.uk/files/profits-before-volume-housebuilders-crisis-housing-supply.pdf

End of year profits for the biggest five firms (after taxation, impairments and exceptional items are taken into account) increased from £372 million in 2010 to over £2 billion by 2015 – an increase of over 480 per cent.

The housing market (including those using house rental as a business) is broken but the solution is not to build the wrong type of housesin the wrong places just to fuel the greed of the house building industry. That is what this plan is for, and it won’t deliver the things that the locals need, that is for sure.

And don’t start me on the failed planning policy of massively increasing retail space in Guildford instead of denser urban flats, close to employment and transport hubs for young people and key workers. The sector is in terminal decline.

As I have said before, Guildford prides itself on tech. Lets make Guildford the Technical retail capital of the world; for that you don’t have to have no visitors to the town centre, you don’t have to have massive increases in floor space to offer a vibrant shopping experience of the future. What if your shopping was waiting for you when you got home!

http://internetretailing.net/2017/09/retailers-facing-decline-store-sales-ecommerce-continues-grow/

There may be no easy solutions, but it seems that we have caved in to the easiest route with no ambition or vision of what Guildford should look and be like in 30 years time. We have essentially rolled out the same plan from some 4 years ago with a few minor tweaks here and there. That, to me is the very easy route, but it won’t provide any solutions.
John Robson Reply

November 30, 2017 at 11:05 am

“Councils can only work with what central government lays down.” Really?

GBC took a Labour Government to court in 2010 in order to protect development on the green belt and won, they didn’t lie down on that occasion. Why was that, a point of principal or the colour of the rosette?

Instead of rolling over, why didn’t the apparent Con/Lib alliance at GBC fight their corner in the interests of the constituents who elected them on a mandate to “protect the green belt” and deliver proper affordable council housing with joined up infrastructure?

Instead, and on the basis of “economic viability”, they will allow developers to deliver £3-400k two-bed starter homes, made out of cardboard, built on a postage stamp, located on the periphery of town.

This was supposed to be a Local Plan, yet has been shaped by Westminster, aided and abetted by a handful of Conservative/Lib Dem councillors and their stakeholder/developer chums.

This Local Plan serves no one, other than the careers and the balance sheets of the people and organisations that have shaped it.

But if, as a community, we continue to vote for average politicians on the basis that they have a blue or orange rosette on, Guildford will get the Local Plan it deserves.
David Roberts Reply

December 2, 2017 at 8:02 am

It’s an odd world where the prime minister, the chancellor and now the Mayor of London are all speaking up for the green belt but our local council wants to destroy it.