Calderdale Housing Campaign

Objectives of the Campaign

Important Note: these are draft Objectives only, for discussion by all the participants in the Campaign, and for amendment as it evolves. They are the starting point for our debate.

There are many signs of what could be called a crisis‚ affecting housing in Calderdale. Such are the continuing pressures of rising market demand, which have not been checked by the planning system, that the district‚s entire housing allocation of planning permissionsset at the regional level, of new housing units required to be provided every year until 2016has already been completely allocated ˆ 12 years before it should have been. 

What will happen now? As housing developers continue to bring forward scheme after scheme; as the provision of all other social infrastructure (schools, surgeries, transport) fails to keep pace with the increasing number of houses; and as obtaining a dwelling to buy or rent becomes ever more difficult for first-time buyers and lower income households? 

How sustainable are all these new homes, and the existing housing stock?; and is Calderdale being turned into a commuter or dormitory suburb for Leeds and Manchester? 

How can we make housing in Calderdale sustainable and affordable?

  • As a matter of urgency, Calderdale Council should take steps to regain control over the approval of additional housing units in the districtso that this is in accordance with the annual requirements of regional and Calderdale policyafter a period of major oversupply.
  • Because the Council in recent years has approved an excess of housing planning permissions, a general restraint or even moratorium on new permissions should now be appliedsubject to exceptions in order to meet the requirements of affordability and regeneration.
  • The Council should stop approving the excessive number of housing planning permissions on 'windfall' sites that it is doing at present, which is also encouraging developers to target inappropriate sites with excessive development.
  • The Council needs to set out clearly a housing supply strategy for Calderdale that identifies (i) its approach to the provision of new housing units over the next ten years; (ii) what mechanisms it intends to use in order to control the number of new houses; and (iii) how it intends to deal with the issues of housing affordability and sustainability. The Council should consult widely on the implications of this new housing strategy.
  • Following the forthcoming publication of the Calderdale housing needs survey, the Council should consider increasing the proportion of the units within any development that are required to be affordable and decrease the threshold of development size to which this applies. This would also have the effect of controlling the excessive number of planning applications.
  • The Council should take immediate steps to improve the sustainability and energy efficiency of new and existing housingincluding the better enforcement of existing building regulationsand to prevent an unsustainable pattern of development whereby Calderdale becomes a 'commuter suburb'.
  • The Council should take a much stronger line to protect greenfield or 'green' sites from housing development, and to resist predatory or inappropriate housing applications by developers which will adversely affect the character of communities. The Council should also take steps to prevent developers from starting development prematurely, and removing trees etc on prospective sites in order to facilitate planning applicationusing mechanisms such as Planning Contravention Notices and Temporary Stop Notices made available under the Planning Acts.
  • The Council should consider immediately preparing a Supplementary Planning Document to start to implement their new strategy, and to give clear signals to housing developers as to how they should operate responsibly within Calderdale.
  • We call on housing developers to act responsibly in the current situation of excessive housing development, and only to bring forward schemes that are much more affordable, sustainable, and only of a scale appropriate to the site and community within which they will be located.
  • We also call on communities across Calderdale to join in this campaign for affordable and sustainable housing, and to prevent excessive and inappropriate housing developmentand to contact their local councillors to urge their support for this campaign.

Home page

What you can do?

Launch press release

News from planning battles

The fight for the Furtex Mill site

Objectives of the Campaign

Join our discussion group

Statement by Chris McCafferty

How to respond to a housing planning application

Calderdale Council and affordable housing

Can we make new houses more sustainable?

How many new dwellings are the Council required to provide?

STOP PRESS

15th July: Council refuses huge Crow Nest, Hebden Bridge planning application

New Council housing strategy 2005-10 and affordability housing policy report