“… ensuring homes are built in the right places.”
Exhibition on show in Sidmouth TODAY at Kennaway House.
BREAKING: Central government-imposed housing quotas scrapped.
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Last month, the District Council’s road show on its Local Plan started up:
Have your say on how many homes need to be built and where in East Devon, sharing your views on a new draft Local Plan.
The document sets out how EDDC intends to meet housing targets, to meet the needs of local residents and ensure new homes are net zero carbon, ensuring they are more efficient and cheaper to run. The draft plan also outlines how the district addresses the climate change emergency, how and where new jobs should be created, how town centres should be supported and how the district can protect build heritage and the natural environment.
As covered by the press at the time: Consultation on future developments in East Devon Plan | Sidmouth Herald and Sidmouth: Consultation on future developments in East Devon launched | Local News | News | Sidmouth Nub News
The exhibition is on show in Sidmouth today at Kennaway House: Sidmouth: East Devon Draft Local Plan Exhibition | Facebook
And if you missed that, here’s the webpage for feedback: Have Your Say Today – East Devon Local Plan – Commonplace
As well as the practicalities of what to build where, there’s a lot of politics going on too, with this comment from the MP for East Devon today:
East Devon is a great place to live, work and explore. Naturally, we want our children and grandchildren to feel like they can lay down their roots here, too. Homes to buy and for long-term rent are increasingly out of reach for people who grew up here or who work locally – including for key workers in the NHS, social care or schools. Home ownership needs to be a reality for a new generation. That will only come about by ensuring homes are built in the right places.
Sadly, East Devon District Council’s new Local Plan is woefully unimaginative. It dumps 9,000 new homes in the far west of the district – stretching from Cranbrook to Clyst St Mary and Exmouth. That is a lot more than the 2,500 planned for the rest of East Devon… Councillors should not be allowing historic towns and villages to merge into one another, nor allow homes to be built without adequate infrastructure in place first. I am acutely aware of the concern among residents in north Exmouth and Lympstone about the alarming volume of development proposed.
New homes need to be built in the right places | Sidmouth Herald
Meanwhile in Westminster: Gove confirms mandatory housebuilding targets for councils will be abolished in face of Tory rebellion – as it happened | Politics | The Guardian
The government has backed down from its pledge to maintain housebuilding targets due to pressures from backbench Tory MPs. As part of a manifesto pledge the Conservatives aimed to build 300,000 homes per year by the middle of the decade. This was done to address the housing shortages felt across the UK. However, critics argued this would place greater pressure on local authorities to meet quotas to meet these figures. Government scraps housebuilding targets | Today’s Conveyancer
The forever war between Conservatives who believe the housing crisis should be fixed by removing state intervention through the planning system and those who believe in using the planning system as a tool to conserve the status quo shows no sign of abating, writes Jules Birch Inside Housing – Comment – Conservative housing policy remains hamstrung by the conflict between short and long-term electoral considerations