Homes create 'more human happiness' than fields, Planning Minister claims

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/gre...er-claims.html

Homes create more 'human happiness' than fields, Planning Minister claims

The government must speed up the rate of house building because homes create more "human happiness" than fields, the Planning Minister has claimed.

Planning Minister Nick Boles

Nick Boles said that communities who refused to co-operate with the government's plans will risk losing their hospitals and high street shops as their populations shrink.

Mr Boles told the Daily Mail that he understands that rural campaigners are "very worried" when greenfield land is replaced by 'the sheer ugliness and soullessness of housing estates'.

He argued that current planning laws, however, are sending Britain "back to the 19th century" when only the wealthiest were able to buy houses to live in.

He said: "The sum of human happiness that is created by the houses that are being built is vastly greater than the economic, social and environmental value of a field that was growing wheat or rape."

Greenfield land in Mr Boles's Grantham constituency has been earmarked for a 7,000 home development.

Mr Boles said of the plans: "The only way we will get to hang on to the services we want to have, the local hospital, the only way he’ll get M&S back and get a John Lewis at some future point, is if the population of the town grows."

The minister added that he planned to make further changes to the planning rules, including the controversial plan to bribe home owners with compensation for neighbouring developments.

He said that he also hoped to make it easier to allow agricultural barns and high street shops to be converted into residential housing, and to put pressure on developers to speed up building on land that has planning permission while "bullying" them into building "more beautiful" houses rather than "soulless, identikit rabbit hutches."

He hit back at councils who have refused to co-operate with his proposals. He said: "There’s no question that some local authorities are dragging their feet.

"Some of them think to themselves they will sit on their hands and let applications come in and refuse them and then blame Nick Boles. It’s deeply irresponsible.

"They’re elected to serve their communities and take responsibility for the difficult stuff as well as the easy stuff."

The Campaign to Protect Rural England chief executive Shaun Spiers said the moves could damage both the countryside and town centres.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘Housing can make people happier than fields but that doesn’t mean it is necessary to spoil fields to produce the new houses that we need.

"All this is the antithesis of good planning. You get transport on inappropriate roads. You suck the life out of high streets, empty inner cities and create further sprawl as you drive people out of towns to go shopping because Nick Boles has converted town centre shops to residential use."

What is this fool on about? and why is he using North Korean style slogans like 'human happiness' right out of the Kim Jong Il propaganda textbook?

Of course the big elephant in the room in relation to the need for more housing is, you guessed it - uncontrolled mass immigration. Naturally when you allow hundreds of thousands of people in every single year you will *shock horror* see strains appearing in housing supplies. And of course it's made worse by the 'white flight' taking place in areas of London where integrated British people of all colours are fleeing areas which are turning into de facto foreign lands. I'd be fleeing too.

There are of course others issues when it comes to town planning - such as the fact that there is loads of brownfield land in the cities and towns already which is waiting to be used properly (rather than 1980s and 1990s thinking of building unsuitable estates on them) but isn't. The reality is, if new homes need to be built we ought to be building more traditional styles of homes (rows with smaller gardens like the Georgian inner-city properties) in the inner city areas which keeps the area alive and which stops the urban sprawl. As for town centre planning, Prince Charles has the right idea with his Poundbury scheme.

But there you go, whatever side of the fence you sit on in regards to this, its quite remarkable to see a Conservative minister do his best to piss off the Tory base (who mostly reside in the shires) as much as he can. You know, sometimes I wonder whether they are on a political suicide mission. I really do.

Thoughts?

[GommeInc]

It's people like him who have made Essex a horrible place. If you go to Essex for any heritage or countryside, take a wrong turn and go to Kent instead, they enjoy their countryside and rich history. Essex has the worst planning laws I have ever seen in the country. They never build or improve useful things (like roads, community based buildings etc), but they let some individuals build buildings in areas which shouldn't be built on because of obvious backhanded deals are being done instead.

Also, it's all well and good saying "WE NEED HOMES," but they're not affordable to first time buyers or young people.