Self-sufficient villages could ease housing crisis, says agent

A controversial suggestion that building on areas of open land to ensure homes for future generations has been welcomed as a common sense idea, if sensitively handled, by Coventry and Warwickshire estate agency Brian Holt.

Government planning minister Nick Boles suggested recently that increasing the amount of developed land in England by a third and building aesthetically pleasing homes would “solve the housing problem.’

His proposal would involve increasing the amount of developed land from the current nine per cent to around 12 per cent.

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Brian Holt, whose company has branches in Leamington, Kenilworth, Coventry city centre and Earlsdon, says the principle Nick Boles suggests is an ideal, although potentially unpopular, way to ensure affordability for more people.

He said: “If demand is greater than supply prices will increase and therefore it is a no-brainer that we should increase the number of available houses to help meet demand, which in turn will bring down prices.

“Green belt is only defined as green belt because someone somewhere decided that areas should be kept as green belt for aesthetic reasons. Sure, the areas involved may be delightful, but then many cities started off in what we would call green belt land.”

But he says Nick Boles’ suggestion that only ”beautiful” housing should be built will not, initially at any rate, help the less well off.

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“Quality of design and construction implies higher costs, thus giving developers a conundrum since they will want to optimise their profits and will want to build to sell into the markets that can afford the quality implied, thus leaving the less well off somewhere down the ladder. But that is as a result of the lack of supply.

“Why not consider new, self-sufficient and sustainable towns and villages, or extensions to existing ones, and with larger plots and quality materials and design?

“Make a lot of land available and then the building will still cost the same but the cost of buying will reduce as relative supply and demand changes.

“The problem is there is such a shortage of supply now that it will take a long time to even the balance and in the meantime, new homes will cost ever more until this balance between supply and demand is evened out.

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“Having said all that, who will be brave enough to drive such a policy through Government? And get acceptance from all the vested interests from those for whom it would mean a change for the worse?

“Perhaps some sort of compensation for those adversely affected, paid for out of a proportion of the value of the land being developed?”

The planning minister, describing much current housebuilding as “ugly rubbish”, argued that improved design might persuade local communities currently opposed to more development to support further building.

“The built environment can be more beautiful than nature and we shouldn’t obsess about the fact that the only landscapes that are beautiful are open - sometimes buildings are better,” he said.

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“We’re going to protect the greenbelt but if people want to have housing for their kids they have to accept we need to build more on some open land.”

He said having a house with a garden was a “basic moral right, like healthcare and education”.

Pictured: Brian Holt