At a recent conference attended by HBF Mike Gwilliam of SEERA gave a response to the Barker recommendations regarding housing supply in the south east. He also made some comments about the possible scale of housing provision likely to be suggested for consultation when the first draft of the document is published towards the end of the year.
At an RIBA conference in Reading on the 30th March "Delivering Quality Places" Mike Gwilliam of SEERA spoke about the forthcoming review of RPG9 as RSS (to be known as the South East Plan). He also made some remarks about the Barker Report.
While acknowledging that there was a lot of useful stuff in Barker he stated that he had serious doubts about the forecasts of need and the price and supply assumptions in the report which were used to arrive at the massive house building totals Barker is promoting. He doesn't believe these are sustainable options for the south east. He said her recommendations were politically naive and that the assumptions about organisational change necessary to deliver them were unrealistic.
He then went on to comment on the emerging RSS (the South East Plan) which starts a series of spring debates and targeted stakeholder consultation shortly, and referred to the level of development SEERA are envisaging being in the range of 0% to 30% above the existing RPG figures. The spring debates will include reference to Barker but only in terms of an option on how high the numbers could reasonably go. It won't specifically consult on a Barker figure for the south east. He also made it clear that this was very much an outside option and that somewhere in the 0-30% range was the realistic figure. HBF will be attending these speing debates and will report back in due course.
The comment has to be made that, bearing in mind that existing RPG for the south east at 39,000 per year refers to the fact that rates in the future may need to rise to 43,000 (which would be a 10% increase), it would appear we are not left with much of an increase. Also, if theis is calculated on the basis of what has actually been completed in recent years rather than what RPG says should have been completed, we may be lucky to achieve even 43,000 !!
For further information please contact HBF regional planner for the southern region pete.errington@hbf.co.uk(Pete Errington) by email or call 023 8067 1030.