A return to Victorian-style closely knit terraced properties with small gardens and no parking could spell the end to Britain’s housing problems, according to planning consultants Llewelyn-Davies.
The firm director Martin Crookston, who is advising Government on how to reach its target of 4.4m homes by 2016, told the Environment Select Committee that people living in London would be no more than a 10-minute stroll away from a town centre. This would make it easy for residents to reach good services, jobs and public transport.
But Labour’s Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich) likened the scheme to putting more and more rats in a cage. “In the end they start killing each other,” she said.
Crookston denied claims that the scheme would amount to “town cramming”. He said he saw the move as “stitching back together” town communities, leading by design and pushing up the density of properties, while respecting their surroundings.
A small “gap” site on the edge of a town centre would traditionally accommodate approximately six three and four bedroom houses with 14 parking spaces.
If designers stepped in, the same piece of land could have a strong street frontage of 14 two and three bedroom houses and flats with one parking space for each unit, says Llewelyn-Davies.
A third option showed how 32 one, two and three-bedroom properties could fill the site if there was no car parking. It would show a similar frontage with single aspect houses at the back.
Crookston said it was not his idea to squeeze living space and declared he would have been willing to live in option three for at least the first 10 years of his married life.
He said some of the highest density properties were among the costliest. He cited places such as Dolphin Square and Kensington as among the most intensive in London.
Option three outlined by Crookston, would accommodate people “who are in their first flat, students, nurses, single family householders.
”There are all sorts of groups who could live in that kind of environment perfectly happily for perhaps part of their lives.”
Michael Gwilliam, director of the Civic Trust, said he supported the general thrust of Llewelyn-Davies’s argument but he emphasised the importance of community cooperation in addition to housing design.
Gwilliam suggested the introduction of a “greenfield levy” to discourage developers from building on such sites which would be controlled by VAT regulations.
On a different tack, he told the committee there were tens of thousands of empty properties above shops which could be renovated to help reduce the housing shortage.
Bob Lawrence, chief executive of the Empty Homes Agency – an independent housing organisation dedicated to bringing England’s empty homes back into use – claimed that of an estimated 767,000 empty homes, 250,000 had been empty for a year or more and most were in disrepair.
Research by Portsmouth City Council suggested that half the long-standing empty homes needed less than £5,000 to make them habitable.
Lawrence said there were not many incentives for home owners to let out their empty homes, which were “a burden to the public purse”.
”Prior to the poll tax there was an empty property rate. I am reasonably confident that the new Government is considering the reintroduction of that rate.”
Lawrence stressed the importance of simplifying the grant regimes introduced by the previous government, which he said were confusing to the public interested in taking over an empty home.
The Empty Homes Agency is currently working with 180 English councils who have developed empty property strategies.
In May, the EHA would be announcing plans for enforced sale of empty homes – 41% of which are caused by bereavement or owners going into care.
Chris Holmes, director of Shelter – the National Campaign for Homeless People – said part of the housing problem was caused by a lack of affordable property.
PA News 27/04/98
