Marianne Overton

By Marianne Overton overton

The current dash for ‘growth’, based on borrowing ever more to build and buy, seems perverse in the face of how we got into this economic doldrums. We have empty dwellings we can’t sell, even in desirable areas.

Building ever-more new houses, was underwritten by the banks, and is now underwritten more directly by the public purse – that is our public purse, the one with the big deficit already. Public services are already stretched, to the point of disappearing in the case of adult care, rural libraries, buses at night, youth clubs, policing, roads that can cope with the traffic, etc.

Yet, the latest plan proposes more than 42,000 new dwellings in Central Lincolnshire alone, by 2031, or sooner, with a corresponding increase in population. This increase of over 70,000 more people is in part from Lincolnshire, but by far the biggest part, from inward migration from elsewhere.

How can we fund the jobs, services and infrastructure, such as roads, schools, health facilities? Councils have been able to require a “106 contribution”, to provide specifically only the extra infrastructure needed by that particular development, so not enough for big projects such as new roads, new schools, new sewage works.

That is in addition to the new jobs needed and expecting councils to provide for the extra people. Local tax is only a very small part of the public money spent locally. The rest comes from central government – a diminishing pot, so there is a shortfall on every new addition.

To add to the coffers, in 2010 Councils were granted the ability to charge a “roof tax”, called an community Infrastructure levy, based on the size of the new dwellings built. Some councils are already charging it. To make it affordable, the plan is for developers to negotiate the land price down by the corresponding amount. Building fairly dense housing estates on farmland is obviously the most profitable.

But Central Lincolnshire is not expecting to bring in the charge until well into 2014. So literally hundreds of dwellings in open countryside are coming forward for development, before the charge comes in — 348 were approved at NKDC this week alone.

A call for land has brought forward enough to swamp us. The Joint Planning Unit with 12 representatives from four councils has the decision-making power to create a whole set of policies against which all other applications are compared. This is called the Core Strategy.

A District or City Council may hesitate in formally giving permission as an application comes through, but will be overruled by the government Inspectorate, if the site is already allocated by the twelve councillors. The much-anticipated neighbourhood plans can only ask for more development, not less. And do we rest once the first five years’ land is allocated? No, I am told, we seek the next tranche.

Even if it were allocated from the outset, the CIL money is not enough. The Central Lincolnshire WPV and CIL Viability Study explains; “To support the delivery of the planned growth, there is an estimated infrastructure funding gap of over £350 million.” Worse, the developers frequently plead that they cannot afford to provide what is needed, so councils let them off. That means the service will not be provided, or you and I will have to eke out the resources further.

We need to link the building of houses to the essential infrastructure. It cannot be right to continue to build unviable developments which increase traffic and place unaffordable demands on the rest of us.

The result will be damage to our environment and way of life by suburbanising our county, largely to relieve overspill from London and the southeast of England, and not to support our own needs which are being met adequately by existing modest development. Let’s focus instead on getting our businesses thriving to provide the jobs and money we need, and only build the houses to match.

The Joint Planning Unit has been working on this for years, and I have only just been given a place as a reserve member – so wish me luck!

Marianne Overton is the Independent County and District Councillor for Navenby and Branston District and the Cliff Villages. Also leader of the Lincolnshire Independents, a county-wide support network. Twice elected national Leader of the Independent Group of councillors for England and Wales and Vice Chairman of the Local Government Association.

By Marianne Overton overton

We see our public services now struggle to fund what we used to think was simply the basics: libraries, youth services, bus subsidies, yes, and the list goes on. What about enough ambulances, hospital care, police, school places, road quality, good adult care and even removal of some household waste?

Yet we have more people in the county, more traffic, and more pressure on our services.

Of the money the County Council spends, only part is raised locally. The rest comes from central government and that pot is getting smaller. That leaves a shortfall for every new house built. So growing our population means we have to spread our resources more thinly.

Cities do have bigger economies, but they have poor people too. North Kesteven had one of the fastest growing populations in the country, but over the same period, the GVA, the measure of wealth, fell like a stone to the fourth lowest in the country. There was an initial growth as the houses were built, but then the big builders move on and we need to provide for people, with less money per head.

One of my residents was very unhappy to see permission given for hundreds of houses, when he was penalised by the same council with extra high council tax after he downsized but was unable to sell his house.

“We have so many empty houses, even in desirable villages,” he said, “why do we have to have so many new ones? Who are these houses for and where are they going to work?”

So why are so many houses allowed? The government has top-sliced some of our funds and put them into a pot to encourage district councils to give planning permission. The amount is six years council tax, so areas with low council tax like ours; have to build a lot more houses to get the same money. That is how some of our funds drain south to leafier suburbs. But people who move in here have needs too; jobs and services, and we clearly struggle as it is.

We certainly do want some development, but it has to be in proportion with what is needed by the people of Lincolnshire. And it needs to start with economic activity from a range of businesses, so we can afford it, not built on a quagmire of debt.

People rightly fight very hard for our libraries, so how about our ambulance service, health, roads, care for older people, jobs? This plan for massive house-building is out for consultation now. Please send in your comments, even if it is only to use the free text box to agree or disagree. Deadline September 16th.

There is an economic strategy and a transport plan with hopes of reducing pressures, but we have been working on these ideas for a long time and our experience shows us, they are unlikely to be enough. Indeed, the document says it.

I see that the community levy or “roof tax” is not being applied to vast numbers of houses now getting permission in advance of its introduction, whilst other areas have got the tax in place. Even the “106 monies” calculated as the needs arising from that development for schools and health are frequently not applied when big developers plead that it “isn’t viable”.

The plan is designed for over a long period, but what we have seen before and are already seeing now, is that when you lift the lid on planning restrictions, there is an initial flood and then more is demanded.

Development needs to be in balance. As one person said to me,

“If I wanted to live in Gainsborough, or even another city, I would. We do not need it being built over here.”

It is not more of everything that gives us quality of life. It is having economic activity, housing and enough money for services in the right balance, without damaging the rural nature of Lincolnshire we love. We need to learn from our mistakes and focus not on national party political building targets, but on what is needed locally.

Marianne Overton is the Independent County and District Councillor for Navenby and Branston District and the Cliff Villages. Also leader of the Lincolnshire Independents, a county-wide support network. Twice elected national Leader of the Independent Group of councillors for England and Wales and Vice Chairman of the Local Government Association.