Housing and development policies . AIBU to be thoroughly shocked ?

Nobody wants people being homeless but we need to sort out all the issues that go with building so many new houses.

What do you suggest?

Incidentally, my town has a brand new GP surgery with plenty of space, but still can't recruit GPs.

growstuff

icanhandthemback I don't know where you live, but I did some work on school places a few years ago. I showed that there are enough school places, but not necessarily the ones that parents want for their own children. The situation is particularly acute in London because schools are within commuting distance. Pupils can cross borough boundaries with ease and savvy parents play the "game". Initiatives to encourage schools to compete with each other have exacerbated the problem, but the underlying issue isn't an absolute shortage of places.

Things must have changed over the years since we lived in London, boundaries and catchment areas were much stricter when our DC were pupils there.
However, I do remember that there was a choice of about 12 secondary schools in our borough plus a church school just outside the boundary. Choosing a secondary school was quite cut-throat, coming from the Shires it was eye-opening!
Then we moved and there was Hobson's choice.

Katie59

When a new development is proposed and gets “outline”planning consent the LA say what infrastructure improvements are needed and work cannot start until these are met. At that stage the improvements have not been costed, that is what hold up building, developers are not going to start a project that will make a loss.

I have one very close for 3000 houses, road improvements alone have spiraled to £120m, way more than the site can afford.

That's why I wrote upthread that planning systems need a complete overhaul. Housing is too important to be left to the market. The state needs to intervene and make sure that all stakeholders are involved in improving infrastructure by offering subsidies, if necessary, and ensuring procedures are followed.

How many people know that councils are given grants for new housing to incentivise new building? Do they ever ask their councils to account for the money, which could finance some of the facilities people complain about?

Callistemon21

growstuff

icanhandthemback I don't know where you live, but I did some work on school places a few years ago. I showed that there are enough school places, but not necessarily the ones that parents want for their own children. The situation is particularly acute in London because schools are within commuting distance. Pupils can cross borough boundaries with ease and savvy parents play the "game". Initiatives to encourage schools to compete with each other have exacerbated the problem, but the underlying issue isn't an absolute shortage of places.

Things must have changed over the years since we lived in London, boundaries and catchment areas were much stricter when our DC were pupils there.
However, I do remember that there was a choice of about 12 secondary schools in our borough plus a church school just outside the boundary. Choosing a secondary school was quite cut-throat, coming from the Shires it was eye-opening!
Then we moved and there was Hobson's choice.

Yes, they have changed. Boundaries are more or less meaningless these days.

growstuff

Callistemon21

growstuff

icanhandthemback I don't know where you live, but I did some work on school places a few years ago. I showed that there are enough school places, but not necessarily the ones that parents want for their own children. The situation is particularly acute in London because schools are within commuting distance. Pupils can cross borough boundaries with ease and savvy parents play the "game". Initiatives to encourage schools to compete with each other have exacerbated the problem, but the underlying issue isn't an absolute shortage of places.

Things must have changed over the years since we lived in London, boundaries and catchment areas were much stricter when our DC were pupils there.
However, I do remember that there was a choice of about 12 secondary schools in our borough plus a church school just outside the boundary. Choosing a secondary school was quite cut-throat, coming from the Shires it was eye-opening!
Then we moved and there was Hobson's choice.

Yes, they have changed. Boundaries are more or less meaningless these days.

Unless you live where we do ?

There are going to be a lot of Ukrainian refugees needing permanent homes soon. I wonder if the government have any plans for them when they move on from their hosts? I suspect not

Callistemon I'd forgotten you're in Wales. Sorry!

In England, everybody has the right to apply for a school in any authority. Academy chains are their own admissions authorities. Distance is usually one admissions criterion, but there may be others, such as siblings, musical ability or religious affiliation, which might trump the distance. Authorities aren't obliged to pay bus fares to a school outside the authority, if there's a closer school, which puts some parents off.

It's estimated that about 12% of available places in England are not filled, while some schools are over capacity - that's a planning decision at local level. Primary demand is about to dip and secondary demand will follow in about 3/4 years. No authority will build permanent places, when they're only needed for a few years.

Education authorities usually publish forward planning predictions with the predicted number of places needed for up to 10 years. Usually, there are enough places in total, but most authorities have "sink" schools which parents don't want. Authorities won't commit to new building unless the surplus numbers are in multiples of 30 (a class) and government regulations state that new schools can't be built unless there's an established need, which is why schools won't be built until houses are occupied and every surplus place is filled. Groups of parents can get round that using the "free schools" initiative, if (for example) they can show that there's a need for a religious school or one for pupils with special needs, but it's a long process.

Interesting, thanks growstuff

As a consequence of being involved in resisting an awful development on a green field site I have lost all confidence in the Planning Inspectorate's independence of Tory Ministers.

In England, everybody has the right to apply for a school in any authority.

They may have that right but it doesn't mean the schools have to take them. My daughter had a school directly opposite her within touching distance...no places at that school when all the families moved into that area in the new builds and the schools that they were offered were miles away. No car? Disabled? Tough. No room at the inn. However, when she suggested that the school her daughter had come from could be an option if her daughter stayed with me, it was a definite no even though some of the schools she was offered were impossible for her to get her child to.

Sorry, Growstuff but there may be places in schools but in our area, whilst the schools aren't fantastic, they aren't "sink" schools and any would do but there are few places. I know of parents with siblings in schools but places aren't available there either. There has been a massive building programme each side of the County lines and the infrastructure just hasn't kept up.
As to the Doctor's Surgeries not being able to recruit, the way we limit the training of new GP's is abysmal. There is just no joined up thinking.
It isn't just the immediately obvious stuff though. New builds have back flow from the sewage system when it rains because the sewers can't cope with the amount of waste.
I am not anti new builds per se but it has to be done properly.