It is generally accepted amongst
us Brits that because we live on a small island with an ever-growing
population, house prices will continue to increase. Official figures suggest
250,000 new homes are needed each year in the UK to keep up with demand, and
yet last year only 217,000 were built. In last week’s Budget the Chancellor
announced plans to start building 300,000 new homes a year, which raises the question…where
are they all going to go?
It may surprise you to hear that
only 5.9% of the UK is actually built on, with the majority (56.7%) being used
as farmland, 2.5% being designated as ‘green urban’ (that’s parks, gardens and
recreational space) and the other 34.9% remaining natural. So, all the houses,
roads, shops, businesses, airports and other buildings take up less than 6% of
the nation - which is quite amazing when you think about it. As we spend most
of our time in built-up areas it’s often only when we fly home from holiday and
look out the plane’s window we are reminded how green Britain actually is!
When we extract Wales, Northern
Ireland and Scotland from the figures though (a huge 71% of Scotland remains
completely untouched, with just 2% being built upon), the data indicates that
an average of 8.8% of England is built on, with 3.8% green urban, 72.9%
farmland and just 14.5% remaining natural.
Here in Chichester we’re less
than half as densely urbanised than most of England, as we benefit from just 4%
of the District being built upon. A further 2% of land is green urban, 69%
farmland and, not surprisingly for an area that includes the South Downs, a higher-than-average
25% of our land remains natural.
I fear this abundancy of open
space is why central government sees Chichester as an easy target to take on more
housing - with directives to build thousands of new homes in the coming years (the
current local plan sets 435 per year as a target, but this figure is likely to
be increased in the 2020 review to 505-650 per year). The higher-end of that
range would equate to more than 7,000 additional homes being built by 2030, which
is a significant increase on the 50,000 or so existing properties in the
Chichester District today.
So where are we going to build
these new homes? It’s all well and good for central government to push for
these schemes, but the knock-on effect is the strain upon local infrastructure
i.e. the roads, public transport, schools, hospitals and other public services
that need to be enhanced and added to.
Well, the development at
Whitehouse Farm is set to be the biggest in Chichester’s history, with 1,600 new
homes planned. And farmland is also under threat in Shopwhyke, Westhampnett and
Tangmere. But surely all these new residents will need to eat, so continuously
building on farmland isn’t sustainable in the long-run. Unless housing is to be
more densely built (think taller but smaller new-build units, with a lack of
outdoor space) it seems the quarter of our District’s land that remains
‘natural’ could be under threat.
Whilst the Government has made loose
promises about the ‘green belt’ being safe from development, it seems that
there will come a time when there is little option than to build upon the open
spaces that inherently make Chichester and the surrounding areas such a joyous
place to live.
(This article was featured in the Chichester Observer's property section on 30th November 2017)
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