If the Government wants to pursue its plans for Heathrow expansion it must now go back to square one and reconsider the entire case for the runway.

The implications of today’s ruling are profound, not just for Heathrow but for airport expansion plans across the UK.  Lord Justice Carnwath ruled that the 2003 Air Transport White Paper – the foundation of expansion plans across the country – is obsolete because it is inconsistent with the Climate Change Act 2008.

The judge expressed real concern over the “hardship caused to the local community by uncertainty” over the third runway. The coalition which brought the successful legal challenge is now calling on the Government to end the uncertainty and scrap the runway plans once and for all.

The judge ruled that:

• If the Government decides to push ahead with the runway project it must now review the climate change implications of Heathrow expansion, the economic case for a third runway, and the issue of how additional passengers would get to a bigger airport.

• The Government’s entire aviation policy must now be reviewed to take into account the implications of the 2008 Climate Change Act. The judge found that “the claimants’ submissions add up, in my view, to a powerful demonstration of the potential significance of developments in climate change policy since the 2003 Air Transport White Paper. They are clearly matters which will need to be taken into account under the new Airports National Policy Statement.”(1)

• On the economic case for Heathrow expansion he would be ‘surprised’ if the recent tripling of the estimated cost to society of emitting carbon did not have ‘a significant effect’ on the economic case for the runway. The judge also said that “it makes no sense to treat the economic case as settled in 2003.”

• On the issue of surface access he said the claimants’ case – that there is no credible plan in place to transport millions of extra passengers to an expanded Heathrow – was ‘justified’. Significantly, he noted that the Government was “unable to provide a convincing answer” in court when it was pressed about over-crowding on the Piccadilly underground line that would result from construction of a third runway.

The judge is now inviting the Government to sign a legally binding undertaking that it will not base future aviation policy solely on its 2003 white paper. A further court hearing is expected to take place next month to examine the Government’s response to the judge’s request. At the same hearing the coalition will seek costs and fully expects to recover those costs from the Government.

Shaun Spiers, Chief Executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said:
“The Government said there could be no argument about the need for a third runway. This was undemocratic and it was wrong.

“We were forced to bring this legal case to give people the right to challenge the expansion of Heathrow. The High Court has now made clear that a fundamental review of aviation policy is needed. This not just a victory for people living around Heathrow or around other airports, it is a victory for everyone who wants a tranquil countryside and a democratic planning system.”

Cllr Ray Puddifoot speaking on behalf of the local councils said:
“This is a spectacular victory for our residents. The Government had been trying to close down debate on the true economic impact of a third runway by presenting it as a done deal.

“Today’s ruling has blown that position apart. The Government just did not want to have to take on board the real consequences of new climate change laws. The judge made it clear the figures just did not add up.

“If after this ministers are still intent on pressing ahead with expansion they will have to go back to the beginning and justify the whole economic case in public. Knowing what we now know about rising carbon costs this is an argument they cannot win.

“The third runway is effectively dead because it cannot survive the proper economic and environmental scrutiny which the Government tried to avoid. As local councils we call on the Prime Minister to do to the decent thing and bury this discredited policy.”
Geraldine Nicholson, Chair of NoTRAG, said:
“As local residents, we now demand that the Government drops all plans for a 3rd runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow so that we can cast off the 8 years of blight and start to rejuvenate our communities.”

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:
“This ruling leaves the Government’s Heathrow decision in tatters. Ministers will now have to go back to the drawing board and conduct a broad consultation on key issues where their case is extremely weak. The third runway was already on life support, but with this ruling it’s hard to even find a pulse. This shows that David Cameron and Nick Clegg backed the right horse when they pledged to scrap the third runway, and it makes any Conservative U-turn after the election all but politically impossible.”

David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF-UK, said:
“We are delighted with today’s judgement. It deals a body blow to the third runway, but more than that it makes it clear that the Government’s whole policy of airport expansion must be reviewed in order to bring it into line with the Climate Change Act.

“Today’s landmark ruling has implications that could resonate far wider than the aviation sector. For a judge to tell the Government that it cannot build huge pieces of carbon-intensive infrastructure without considering the long-term consequences is a resounding win in the fight to tackle climate change. It is also a further indication of the need for the UK to make a swift transition to a low carbon economy. WWF would now urge the Government to focus on green investment, encouraging alternative ways of connecting with people wherever possible, such as high speed rail and videoconferencing, rather than relying on carbon-heavy methods such as flying.”

HACAN Chair John Stewart said:
“This is an utterly damning verdict for the Government.  It not only raises very serious concerns about a third runway at Heathrow, it also calls into question the Government’s entire aviation policy.  This really could be the final nail in the coffin for a third runway.”

Martin Harper, the RSPB’s Head of Sustainable Development, said:
“Right from the start, we have argued that building a third runway at a time when we are battling to reduce our carbon emissions made no sense.

“Climate change threatens many species with extinction and we are already seeing its impacts with catastrophic declines in seabird numbers in parts of the North Sea.

“Concerns about climate change are at the heart of today’s judgement. The clear message from the High Court is that Government must now take those concerns into account.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS
1.) National Policy Statements (NPSs) are a key part of the new planning system that was established by the Planning Act 2008. They are strategic planning documents will set out the  national  need for major infrastructure developments  such as power stations, ports, airports, roads  and transmission lines. When an application is submitted for such a development above a certain threshold, there will be a presumption in favour of granting permission. The Government has said it intends to publish a draft Airports NPS next year.

2.) Six local authorities in West London (Hammersmith and Fulham, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth and Windsor & Maidenhead) are claimants to the challenge, alongside   the local residents group (NoTRAG) and the national campaigning group against airport expansion HACAN. WWF-UK, Campaign to Protect Rural England and Greenpeace are also claimants. Transport for London is an independent party supporting the claim. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is an expert witness. The challenge is also supported by Kensington and Chelsea and the Mayor of London. The local authorities are all members of the 2M Group which comprises 24 local councils opposed to Heathrow expansion with a combined population of 5 million.

3.) The legal challenge was launched in April 2009 and the case was heard in the High Court at a rolled-up hearing on the 23rd – 25th February 2010.

4.) In February 2007, Greenpeace won a Judicial Review against the Government’s energy review which backed a new generation of nuclear power stations. As a result the government was forced to re-run the public consultation.

5.) If a third runway at Heathrow airport were to be built, the airport would become the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide in the UK. Unrestrained airport expansion would make it impossible for the UK to play its part in tackling climate change. The Government has committed the UK to cuts of at least 80% in CO2 emissions by 2050. Research from the respected Tyndall Centre shows that if the industry is allowed to expand as predicted, aviation emissions alone would make it impossible to meet this target.

6.) Aviation has a number of high-altitude impacts that increase its total warming effect on the climate. The Committee on Climate Change has recently suggested that aviation has a Global Warming Potential of around two, meaning that its total warming effect is twice that of its CO2 emissions alone.

7.) In December 2009, the Committee on Climate Change published a report with recommendations of how the Government target to reduce aviation emissions to 2005 levels by 2050 could be met. The Committee recommended that aviation growth needs to be limited to around half of that planned in the White Paper, but warned that the target may need to be further tightened in the future.

8.) All the claimants are represented by Harrison Grant (solicitors) instructing Nigel Pleming QC of 39 Essex Street, Nathalie Lieven QC and David Forsdick of Landmark Chambers.

London, England (CNN) — Despite the financial downturn affecting property prices and construction projects around the world, bullish American billionaire Donald Trump remains committed to building what he has dubbed the “world’s greatest golf course” in Scotland after unveiling designs for the new complex.

Trump’s proposal includes 950 holiday homes, a hotel, an equestrian center, tennis courts and a residential village, on top of the championship golf course.

With latest official statistics showing unemployment in Scotland has risen to 7.6 percent, the move has been welcomed by the country’s government who are anxious to bring investment to the area.

A spokesman for the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party told CNN: “Ministers agreed with the public inquiry conclusion that there was significant economic and social benefit to be gained from the application by Trump International Golf Links Scotland to develop a golf resort at Balmedie.”

The recent unveiling of the design masterplan for the resort comes at a time when similar projects around the world struggle for a positive return on investment.

The $1 billion “Tiger Woods Dubai” a golf resort originally planned for September 2009, has been delayed indefinitely with only eight holes been built so far.

Trump’s project, which has been marred by controversy and litigation since its inception in 2008, will cost a staggering $1.6 billion to complete.

Richard Gillis, editor of Platform Magazine, told CNN that: “Trump is betting that the market for the very top end has not been detrimentally affected by the recession and banking crisis.

“It will be interesting to see the effect of the Trump brand on sales, as it is untested as a means of selling golf outside of the U.S.”

But Trump, an avid golfer who already owns 13 courses around the world, is said to be confident his resort will be profitable within a decade.

“When I create anything – a building, private club or resort – it is the highest quality available in the world,” he stated.

“The project is in really good shape with no financial concerns,” the project’s executive vice president, Sarah Malone, told CNN.

She revealed Trump has recently bought another two courses in the United States.

However, to realize his vision, Trump will still need to acquire four plots of land owned by families on the Scottish coast, who have thus far been adamant in their refusal to sell their homes.

Last year a 15,000-strong petition, which included Hollywood actress Tilda Swinton, backed the four residents who face possible eviction.

But Malone insisted that the project would bring much-needed financial benefits to the region.”This would regenerate an area that needs to diversify its business. It will also create thousands of jobs,” she said.

Gillis is more skeptical. “The billion dollar figure, the thousands of jobs promised and the always unreliable ‘economic benefit’ arguments look like winning the day,” he said.

“I only hope that in return for giving up this stretch of their coastline the locals can at least make some money from the caper.

“Because given the level of green fees needed to make back Trump’s investment, very few of them will be playing the course,” he added.

Trump fought a long battle to gain planning approval for the course north of Aberdeen.

It was finally granted by the Scottish government in November 2008, who imposed a series of stringent conditions to protect the habitat of the area, but were swayed by arguments over job creation, with up to 6,000 forecasted, and regeneration.

Trump is due in Scotland in May to officially mark the start of construction work on his course and hopes to talk to local people about the project, his spokesperson told CNN.

Link to original CNN article

Council chief makes clear public will pick up the tab if event does not go ahead

By jonny muir – Press and Journal

Published: 16/11/2009

The taxpayer will pick up the tab if a multimillion-pound exhibition showcasing environmentally friendly homes is cancelled, it has emerged.

Scotland’s Housing Expo is due to be held at Balvonie Braes, Inverness, in August 2010, but contingency plans have been prepared in case the event is abandoned or delayed.

In a report to councillors, Geoff Robson, Highland Council’s head of environment and development, said cancellation would lead to the liquidation of the Expo company, with “any outstanding debts being met from public sector resources”.

Identified risks that could lead to postponement of the 55-home event, which has already been delayed by a year, include failure to complete houses on time, low ticket sales or insufficient sponsorship.

Expo board chairman Jean Urquhart yesterday predicted “success, not disaster” and said a risk assessment had to be prepared to “reassure all our partners in the event of disaster”.

She said the prospect of cancellation was “simply not being contemplated”, but conceded there was a chance that the homes might not all be completed in time.

Despite the assurance, there were calls at the weekend to scrap the event, believed to be costing about £5million, to avoid it becoming a “white elephant”.

Barrie Haycock, a member of Inverness South Community Council, said: “There would be uproar from everybody if the event had to be cancelled.

“That money could have built a new school in Milton of Leys.”

Questioning the Expo’s potential to generate a budgeted £180,000 in ticket sales, he added: “Where they think these people are going to come from – given that large annual exhibitions with free admission are held in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London – is a mystery to anyone who has an understanding of marketing.”

Liz Gilchrist, who sits on a community liaison group of councillors, Expo representatives, residents and ward managers, said organisers had been upbeat about the event’s prospects at their last meeting on October 14.

She said: “They were very positive and hoping to get the site up and running by April. The public sector is already peeved at cuts, and having to carry the can for this would rub salt in the wound.”

Inverness South councillor John Holden added: “There is a great danger of it not happening, and I fear the public purse will have to pay for what is someone’s badly thought-out dream.”

In a report to Wednesday’s planning, environment and development committee, Mr Robson said the Expo would be promoted by a 10-month travelling exhibition.

Budget forecasts indicate that, as well as generating £180,000 from ticket sales, the Expo must make £80,000 from sponsorship, £27,000 from parking charges and £20,000 from brochure sales.

The Expo, previously called the Highland Housing Fair, aims to showcase modern low-energy housing designs, stimulate the wider use of timber construction and promote the “creativity and quality of lifestyle” in the Highlands.

Read more: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1484194#ixzz0XCmXpbQn

Planning Watch pictures of the forlorn and neglected site taken on 15th November 2009:

Entrance to the site

No evidence of house building commencement

Companies House records detailed below indicate that accounts should have been filed no later than 30th July 2009.

In a meeting attended by the Editor of Planning Watch UK,  in a private capacity, with Neil Cameron of Tulloch Homes and Richard Hartland, Head of Planning, Highland Council, on Thursday last, Mr Middleton,  Managing Director Greenbelt Group Ltd.,  continued to state that it was business as usual, giving no indication of the threat to the Greenbelt Group Ltd., company.

Thousands of home owners throughout the UK are tied to maintenance contracts with this company,  put in place by developers and signed off  by council planning authorites as “fit for purpose”,  with both UK and Scottish Government continuing to refuse to put consumer protection regulations in place demanded by home owners.

Complaints have been made to Trading Standards,  a number of Police Forces, numerous Members of Parliament, both MP’s and MSP’s and directly to the Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing MSP.

In Scotland, the Scottish Government have indicated that they seem to think that the Maintenance industry concerned should regulate itself and the Office of Fair Trading continues to sit on the fence, despite receiving numerous complaints from many different areas of the UK.

Surely it is now time for MP’s and MSP’s to collectively take action to represent the electorate who have elected  representataives to protect the interests of their communities?

Editor

Notes:

Fergus Ewing MSP – Scottish National Party

Fergus Ewing MSP – Scottish Government bio:

Fergus was first elected in 1999 as the MSP for Inverness East Nairn and Lochaber. He was re-elected in 2003 and again in the 2007 elections. Prior to being elected he ran his own law practice and developed SNP policy on small business as well as serving on the national executive of the SNP.

He is the son of Winnie, formerly the MSP for Highlands and Islands and MEP for Scotland, and brother of Annabelle, formerly MP for Perth.

His constituency is the second largest in Scotland, and is about 5 times larger than greater London which has around 90 MPs. Fergus campaigns on a wide variety of matters of vital importance to the area.
He seeks to represent everyone, irrespective of their own political views, and is keen to try to offer help to all constituents when they seek it.

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Herald Scotland:

Some 29,623 homes would need to be built in the region annually

The government has announced it is to rethink controversial plans to build more than half a million new homes in the South West region of England.

The Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West (RSSSW) proposed 592,460 new homes to meet official predictions of housing needs for the next 20 years.

But the plans have met with significant opposition.

The government now says it wants to ensure the RSSSW is the “most sustainable way forward”.

Negative response

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Government Office for the South West (GOSW) had hoped to sign off the plan by June of this year.

But in May the High Court ruled it had not considered “reasonable alternatives” to some proposals in the South East of England.

And officials have acknowledged they have been influenced by the “unprecedented level” of opposition.

Some 35,000 responses were received during the RSSSW public consultation – the majority negative.

A GOSW statement said it would now carry out a new appraisal to ensure the current blueprints “represent the most sustainable way forward for the region”.

‘Partial victory’

Chris Pope, co-chairman of the Dundry Residents Action Group, which campaigns against building on greenbelt land in North Somerset, said: “In some ways I view this as a partial victory.

“We’ve always questioned the government’s figures.

“Their expectations of population growth seem extortionately high.

“But from our point of view, the problem has not gone away.”

The results are not expected to come in before early next year.

Ministers will then have to decide whether to scale down the South West’s housing targets.

Link to original BBC article

A village built in Argyll to meet the demands of the UK oil boom of the 1970s but abandoned without ever being occupied is set for a new role.

Pollphail at Portavadie was to house workers needed to construct concrete oil rigs, but the plan was abandoned.

The site’s owner Alan Bradley said changes would start to be seen within a year as demolition clears the area for the first of 270 new properties.

The “ghost village” revamp has been in the planning process for nine years.

Mr Bradley said it could be five to 10 years before the redevelopment was completed.

Previous owners of the site on the Cowal Peninsula have included the failed bank, BCCI.

Craig Anderson BBC Scotland This is one of the most bizarre places I’ve visited in Scotland – and I’ve been to a few. Keys still dangle on a board waiting for tenants who would never arrive. Coat hangers remain in cupboards and rusting washing machines stand idle, dreaming of their first spin cycle. It’s easy to write off the whole Portavadie development as a madcap government white elephant. Yet the early 1970s were pioneering days for the fledgling UK oil industry and the government of the day would have been heavily criticised had it failed to grasp the nettle and provide construction facilities. Had industry preferences been different, Portavadie might have become as important as Ardersier, Nigg and Methil, where thousands of workers built oil rigs and platforms for a generation. With a top quality marina now open and plans to redevelop Pollphail village, some of that hoped-for prosperity may now be arriving by a different route.

The village – big enough to house 500 people – was built along with a dry dock as the UK government rushed to cash in on North Sea oil.

Similar yards were created at Nigg in Easter Ross and Whiteness, near Ardersier, in the Highlands.

Argyll and Bute councillor Bruce Marshall said the potential work for Portavadie dried up before the workers could arrive on site.

He said: “The houses were built, but the whole thing fell through and concrete oil rigs were no longer the flavour of the month.

“For the past 35 years these houses have been inhabited by sheep and bats and just fallen into disrepair.”

The dry dock, meanwhile, has been turned into a marina.

Local photographer Philippa Elliott has documented the derelict site in a series of photographs.

Her images include a rack of door keys hanging disused and rusting washing machines.

She said some locals believed Pollphail was actually built as a military base on par with Faslane on the Clyde, but other suggestions for what the site was to be used for differ “depending on who you talked to”.

Putting it to use for the construction of concrete rigs was always the last idea offered, the photographer said.

Efforts are also being made to breathe new life into the yards in the Highlands.

Government ministers have been urged to take a greater interest in efforts to put Nigg back into business.

Renewable energy

Highland Council has asked Enterprise Minister Jim Mather to chair a meeting discussing the future of Nigg.

It has also pressed Secretary of State Jim Murphy to encourage the UK Government to become involved.

Potential roles for the site include using it in the construction of renewable energy devices.

At Whiteness, situated on the shores of the Moray Firth, 2,000 homes are planned along with recreation, leisure and fitness facilities.

A marina for yachts and other craft would also be built.

The site’s life as a construction yard ended in 2002 when owners J Ray McDermott closed it down following almost 30 years of activity.

At its height, there were more than 3,000 workers employed there.

BBC article link

Secret Scotland

The remark made by Mr Robert Maund, chairman of the Scottish Campaign for National Parks, came a day after the Scottish Government revealed An Camas Mòr had been chosen as one of 11 “exemplar” low-carbon communities of the future backed by £400,000 of public money.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon said the communities would lead the way in the drive to make Scotland greener and healthier.

Mr Maund highlighted his concern that the cart was being put before the horse at the public inquiry into the Cairngorms National Park Local Plan.

It allocates land for the first phase of the new community on Rothiemurchus Estate which is expected to comprise 1,500 homes by 2028.

Mr Maund said: “I was concerned when I read about Nicola Sturgeon announcing that – it could compromise this hearing and the outcome of it.

“Here we have a Local Plan which is the subject of a hearing with nothing approved, we have a planning application for the development come in a couple of days ago and pretty much the same day the Minister stands up and says this is one of 11 schemes the government is putting £400,000 into to further the aims of the Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative.

“I wonder if I should just go home and do some gardening and put in an application for costs.

“At every level judgements seem to be being made in advance of the Reporter’s recommendations to the park authority.

“It is as if it is a done deal and that would be very worrying for the planning process and for the democratic process.”

Mr Maund asked for “some kind of reassurance” from Reporter Jill Moody leading the hearing on An Camas Mòr that Ms Sturgeon’s announcement would not colour proceedings.

She responded: “I can say in absolute honesty that I have not a clue about any announcement by Nicola Sturgeon.”

Ms Moody said that her involvement was “absolutely objective” and she would be applying “normal planning judgement”.

The SSCI encourages the creation of places which are designed and built to last, where a high quality of life can be achieved and which demonstrate how to reduce ecological footprints.

Other winning exemplar projects include Craigmillar, Edinburgh, PARC Craigmillar; Lochgelly, Fife, Fife Council; Maryhill Locks, Glasgow, Glasgow Canal Regeneration Partnership and Tornagrain, near Inverness, Moray Estates Commenting on them, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government was committed to creating an enduring legacy of high quality, distinctive new places.

“The projects selected include innovative design and building principles but they also promote environmental solutions which communities across Scotland can adopt.

“It is vital for our long term economic and social success that we create communities which provide new homes in the right place, of the right type and which contribute to reducing energy demand and impact on the environment.”

Moving Aviemore across the River Spey was first mooted at a meeting of the village’s community council in 1989.

Speaking at the public inquiry on Thursday, Mr Don McKee, the national park’s head of planning, said: “The park authority has acknowledged that An Camas Mòr is different. It is a new community in a national park and presents both a challenge and an opportunity.”

Explaining the need for the site to be allocated for housing, he said: “We are trying to respect the character of the established communities. We have reached a point where we can no longer add infinitum to the volume of housing. It is increasingly difficult to justify.”

He added that An Camas Mòr could be developed in a co-ordinated way: “This will relieve some of the pressure on other communities but we will be looking at them on an on-going basis to ensure that they remain viable.”

However, Dr Gus Jones, chairman of the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, claimed An Camas Mòr was unsustainable and would seriously damage the natural heritage. “This development within a National Scenic Area has long been viewed as unacceptable,” he said after the hearing. “Apparent ministerial support seems to be based on wishful thinking that ignores widespread opposition.

“Realistically the last thing the Cairngorms National Park needs is another flawed and over-ambitious development, especially one riding roughshod over landscape, conservation and significant community interests.

Mr Johnnie Grant, owner of Rothiemurchus Estate and applicant for the development, said An Camas Mòr was subject to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and well-supported by planning policy.

He commented: “As there are more than 1,000 pages of detailed work to be understood and the proposal is to be tested against pages of planning policies it is very far fetched to describe it as a ‘done deal’.

“There is an immense amount of work to be carried out by a wide range of hard working, qualified and experienced public officials. “Furthermore the granting of outline consent would be only the start of the consent process.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said of the “done deal” claims: “The awarding of the SSCI status to a project by the Scottish Government is completely separate from the process of planning approval.

“The Scottish Government is supportive of the SSCI exemplar projects in their vision to create sustainable communities.

“All proposals have to go through the relevant planning process and SSCI exemplar status does not in any way influence or compromise this process or the considerations of the local authority.”

The green belt borders of Bromsgrove are under huge pressure to take thousands more houses under plans being drawn up by regional bodies.

The Wythall and Beoley areas face the prospect of thousands of new houses being built on green belt land which traditionally has formed the border between Birmingham and Bromsgrove and Redditch and Bromsgrove.

The threat comes from the Government’s Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which has been given the task of deciding where future houses will be built in the West Midlands having been informed by the now defunct West Midlands Regional Assembly as to how many new dwellings will be needed.

Their conclusions make disappointing reading for residents in the Wythall and Beoley areas who could find large new housing estates being built in their area with no democratic accountability for the decisions which have been taken.

Conservative Party MP, Julie Kirkbride is implacably opposed to these developments and will fight to protect Bromsgrove’s green borders.

Click here for more information and to register your concerns.

****************************

Julie Kirkbride

Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove

Tel: 01527 872135 / Fax: 01527 575019 / House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.
Email: julie@juliekirkbride.com / Web: www.juliekirkbride.com

Julie was born in June 1960 and brought up in Halifax, the youngest of three children. Her father was a lorry driver who died when she was seven and her mother worked as a secretary at Rowntree Mackintosh’s. She went to local schools including the local grammar school, which at the time was known as The Highlands and is now the North Halifax High School, followed by Girton College, Cambridge to read economics and history. Whilst at university, she was Vice President of the Cambridge Union Society and active in Conservative politics.

Upon leaving university, she spent a year working for the House magazine in Parliament and then from 1982 to 1983 as a Rotary Foundation scholar studying journalism at the University of California in Berkeley. Between 1983 and 1986, she worked as a researcher for Yorkshire Television in Leeds, between 1986 and 1989 as a BBC News and Current Affairs researcher/producer in London, and from 1989 and 1992 as a producer/reporter for ITN’s Parliamentary Unit. In 1992, she became a political correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and in 1996 Social Affairs Editor on the Sunday Telegraph.

In November 1996, she was selected to fight the Bromsgrove seat which she won the following year. In August 1997, she married Andrew MacKay MP, the Conservative Member for Bracknell, and they have a son, Angus.

Julie Kirkbride’s Experience

Julie’s political career began when she joined the Young Conservatives in Halifax at the age of fourteen and she continued during her time at Cambridge University. When she started working for Yorkshire Television, and subsequently the BBC and ITN, she stopped an active political career due to the potential conflict of interests and likewise whilst she was a political correspondent for the Telegraph.

Her political career therefore resumed in November 1996 when she was selected for the Conservative held seat of Bromsgrove. As a Member of Parliament since May 1997, she has been a member of the Social Security Committee and now sits on the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee. She also sits as a member of the Commons Catering Committee. From November 2003 to September 2004, she was Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport.

Her interests in political issues range across the spectrum with perhaps her highest profile campaign so far being to encourage the Government to introduce single vaccinations alongside the MMR.

You may remember TPA Campaign Manager Susie Squire’s ‘Ask the PM’ question, which was included in the bulletin a few weeks ago.

Crucially, Mr Brown doesn’t answer Susie’s question. Ultimately, Britain’s economic picture, as shown by the above figures, is bad enough. But what about going forward? The picture is bleak. Alistair Darling announced in the recent pre Budget report that a gigantic £512 billion will be added to this our nation’s debt. This will amount to more money (taking into account RPI inflation) than we borrowed to win World War 1. This is terrifying, as it will double official debt to £1 trillion, and push up the cost of servicing our debt from £30.8 billion to £40 billion. The longer term implications of this are higher interest rates – markets will decide we are not such a safe economic bet any more, sterling will devalue further, and everyone will feel even worse off than they do now.

Letters to follow up our reports

2009 Action Days

We’re busy compiling a list of leafleting and petition days across the country for 2009. If you’d like us to have an action day in your area with other TPA supporters and campaigners, email our grassroots coordinator Tim Aker and we’ll organise an action day near you.

In response to last week’s bulletin we have action days already booked for 2009. The dates and venues are:
Swanage – 6 February and 30 April
Shipley – 6 June
If you’d like to come to these campaign days, please email Tim.

Bristol and South West TPA branch established

A council is not a bank

Best of the blogs

Yet, though our congratulations go out to the ‘No’ campaign, it is worth noting that this is a very bittersweet victory with huge amounts already having been spent on a project that was disliked from its inception. Though families in Greater Manchester will no longer have to pay the hefty £1,200 per year that a congestion charge would mean, a startling £34million has already been spent consulting, debating, drawing-up and promoting the TIF bid according to the Drivers’ Alliance, all funded by ordinary taxpayers. It just makes it worse that the very residents who’ve paid for this road pricing ambition seem to have been dead against it from the start, and in the end this £34million bought  218,860 ‘yes’ votes – that’s £155 each.

This money has been frittered away by those with a blind commitment to the congestion charge, encouraged by those who stood to benefit. Perhaps, at this very moment the proponents of road charging are busy wondering how to bring its spectre back to life – with a different guise and new spin – and, if they manage a successful resuscitation, let’s hope our councils recognise it for what it is and remember this Manchester vote.

By Gillian Bell – Press and Journal

Published: 01/08/2008

The Scottish Government has been asked to launch an investigation into north-east residents’ claims that a factor has taken money for work it has not adequately carried out.

Aberdeenshire councillor Martin Ford said he has been contacted by a “number of people” about the Greenbelt Group, which maintains open spaces in housing estates across the north-east.

A resident of the Redcloak estate at Stonehaven had claimed the company has not cut the grass there in more than seven months, despite having already been paid to do so.

The company disputes the time period, but admits there have been problems with a few of its contractors over the last three to four weeks.

Residents at an estate at Newmachar had also complained about the company halving the frequency of its visits.

In a letter to Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing, Mr Ford said: “It appears that there is a widespread problem of poor or no grounds maintenance when the Greenbelt Group are responsible.

“This seems to be the case both when residents are paying on an annual basis and when the developer has paid a lump sum on completion of the development.”

The Liberal Democrat member for East Garioch added: “I have been a councillor for nine years and I have been aware of recurring problems involving the Greenbelt Group.

“I would ask you to look into the problems surrounding the operations of this company. I would also ask you to examine whether we can revert to the situation prior to 1992 where it was almost invariably the case that public open space passed to the local council.

“In my experience, the local council provides the only reliable and sustainable maintenance solution for public open space.”

Greenbelt’s managing director Alex Middleton said problems with contractors over the last three weeks have caused the company difficulties in the north-east.

He said: “Greenbelt has had problems in the north-east and are trying to resolve them as quickly as possible. We will take a look at the particular problems and value for money.

“We are committed to the sites in the north-east and are committed to giving a good service.”

Press and Journal article link

Gordon Banks MP has been supporting residents in their dispute with Greenbelt.

CAMPAIGNERS on a Menstrie housing estate have welcomed support from the Scottish Government in their bid to oust land management company Greenbelt.

Angry residents say the company is not doing its job properly and recently 251 of the estate’s 300 residents signed a petition to get rid of Greenbelt.

However, the petition was rejected by the firm who said it would carry on to maintain the land around the estate, as was agreed with developer Gladedale.

But an email from the Scottish Government has now been sent to a homeowner on an estate in Livingston, also managed by Greenbelt, stating that under the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 owners within an estate can “dismiss a manager and appoint another” without applying to a Lands Tribunal.

Mike Marriot, who is leading the Menstrie campaign, welcomed the support from the Scottish Government saying it proved the residents were well within their legal rights to submit their petition.

He said their ultimate goal was for Clackmannanshire Council to take over the maintenance of the land.

“We signed the petition in March and, since then, homeowners have been bombarded with letters and demands from Greenbelt Group, saying they don’t recognise this,” said Mike.

“We very much welcome the Scottish Government’s backing in this situation, and hope it will encourage both Gladedale and Greenbelt Group to see sense.”

The email also informed homeowners that Government guidance on the management of open spaces was republished last month and now no longer names Greenbelt Group as a suitable provider for the long-term care of open spaces in Scotland.

Gordon Banks MP has been supporting the residents in their dispute with Greenbelt and has been heading an All Party Working Group in Westminster looking at land management companies.

He said, “It is good news that the Scottish Executive confirmed that the action the residents took in their dispute with Greenbelt has been confirmed as the correct course of action.

“Up until now Greenbelt has tried to ignore the actions of the residents at Menstrie Mains and I hope that it will now take on board the strong legal footing on which the residents have based their campaign, and understand that they no longer want Greenbelt to supply land management services.

“I hope that both the Greenbelt and Gladedale can find a constructive way to bring this long standing problem to a solution which meets the aims and objectives of Menstrie residents.”

However, Greenbelt says that the information on the email from the Scottish Government is out-dated and that the Title Deeds Act is a complicated piece of legislation which residents do not necessarily understand the full implications of.

Managing director of Greenbelt, Alex Middleton, told the Advertiser that following the petition a circular was sent to all residents to give them help and guidance, and that Greenbelt has never purported to offer legal advice to residents but said they should seek independent legal advice.

He went on, “Greenbelt has never considered itself to be a manager of the land but, in fact, the owner of the land, which is a significant difference to what is being said by other parties.

“Soundbites have been taken from a very complicated piece of legislation which needs to be understood as a whole and is very technical.

“There is an agreement in place between ourselves and the developer and that will continue.

“We are obliged to manage and maintain the land and residents are obliged to contribute fully and equally.”

A spokesperson for Gladedale added, “We are aware of the issues between the residents and Greenbelt and are hopeful that an amicable solution can be reached between the two parties.”

Link to original article

Eco-towns of up to 20,000 people each are proposed

The government’s approach to delivering up to 10 eco-towns could be “unlawful”, councils have warned.

Ministers are to publish a planning policy statement to set out standards and potential locations in England.

But the Local Government Association said the proposals went against the principle of development through plans drawn up by local authorities.

This might show a wish to avoid “proper scrutiny”, it added. But the government said it “absolutely” disagreed.

‘Deeply flawed’

The eco-towns scheme aims to deliver settlements of 5,000 to 20,000 homes which are zero-carbon overall.

The government shortlisted 15 proposals for new settlements in April and has said up to 10 final approved bids will have to go through the planning process once they have been chosen later this year.

Lawyers John Steel QC and James Strachan, representing the LGA, said an existing planning policy statement covered the concept of providing housing in new settlements in an environmentally sustainable way.

‘ECO-TOWNS’ SHORTLIST Bordon, Hampshire Coltishall, Norfolk Elsenham, Essex Ford, West Sussex Hanley Grange, Cambridgeshire Imerys, nr St Austell, Cornwall Leeds city region, West Yorkshire Marston Vale and New Marston, Bedfordshire Middle Quinton, Warwickshire Pennbury, Leicestershire Rossington, South Yorkshire Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire Source: Department of Communities and Local Government The plans: Site-by-site

There did not seem to be any justification for promoting eco-towns outside the existing rules, “other than the government’s wish to avoid the system due to the proper need for scrutiny, which takes time”, they added.

The LGA said the legal advice showed the government’s approach to eco-towns was “deeply flawed”.

Chairman Sir Simon Milton said the LGA was not opposed to the eco-towns as a way of meeting housing needs and combating climate change.

But he urged: “Ministers must talk to council leaders about adopting a new approach that will deliver development in places where councils and local people agree that eco-towns can work.

“Eco-towns must be delivered without bypassing the planning processes and ensure that new developments have good transport connections alongside the schools, health and leisure facilities which are needed to create places where people would want to live.”

Bidders for eco-towns at Manby, in Lincolnshire, and Curborough, Staffordshire, have pulled out, while part of a third bid at New Marston, in Bedfordshire, has also been withdrawn.

‘Stretching standards’

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “We absolutely disagree with the LGA’s claims and believe this legal advice can only have been obtained on the basis of a misrepresentation of our policy.

“We have made it absolutely clear throughout that eco-towns will be different and will have higher environmental standards than a normal development and the applications will also have to be considered through the normal planning process.”

Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said the legal advice would add weight to the argument that ministers had “effectively destroyed their own eco-town project”.

Liberal Democrat communities spokeswoman Julia Goldsworthy said: “What this government fails to understand is that centrally imposed solutions are doomed to failure.”

Housing fair faces delay of 12 months

By Lorna Paterson – Inverness Courier

Published: 22 July, 2008

The site of the Highland Housing Fair at Balvonie Braes.

THE controversial Highland Housing Fair is facing another major blow — it is set to be delayed for a year.

The exhibition of sustainable housing, billed as the first of its kind in Scotland, had been scheduled to take place in August 2009 at Balvonie Braes in Inverness.

However, it emerged yesterday that growing financial pressures and a downturn in the housing market meant the event will not now be staged until 2010.

Architects and developers from the south were briefed on the latest developments in Perth last week, while developers from the Highlands will be informed on Friday at a meeting in Inverness.The board will then meet to make a final decision although Councillor Jean Urquhart, chairwoman of the Highland Housing Fair board, admitted delaying the event was already looking like the most likely outcome.

She confirmed some developers involved with the project were facing financial difficulty and rather than putting pressure on them, the board would be making the recommendation to its partners.

In the worst case scenario she anticipates the delay to be for 12 months.

However, an on-line architects’ website said there were fears the project, led by Highland Housing Alliance, would lose momentum, particularly if it was postponed for more than a year.

Barrie Haycock, chairman of campaign group Planning Watch UK, while criticising organisers for not forecasting the impact of a declining housing market, also remained sceptical over whether the fair would now go-ahead.

For the event to take place in 2010, he said, the new homes would still need to be built next year, but with experts predicting it to be two years before the housing market recovers he sees this as unlikely. “It was obvious that any downturn in the housing market would put the project at risk,” he said.

He claimed it had collectively landed the tax payer with an enormous bill out of the rush to force it through the planning process.

Inverness MP Danny Alexander said it was a reminder of what impact the global credit crunch was having on the Highlands. “This is very disappointing,” he said. “The fair would have made a great contribution to the Highlands in terms of leading new ideas on how homes can be developed.

Councillor Urquhart (Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh) explained there had been no public announcement about the delay because it was still in consultation with developers and architects.

The housing fair, on an area of green-wedge land, will showcase the best in housing design, innovation and technology.

It has been dogged with controversy with allegations over the conduct of planning officers and unacceptable land deals playing their part but Councillor Urquhart stressed the event would go ahead.

“It makes me angry that people see this as some kind of trumped up nonsense that doesn’t need to happen. There is absolutely no suggestion this will be a cancellation,” she added.

l.paterson@inverness-courier.co.uk

Wilson’s Weekly Wrap

27 Jun 2008

Highland Housing – Fair?

On the surface, things seem to be going not too badly at the moment for the Highland Housing Fair, given the perverse local opposition encountered at the outset of the project and the high drop out rate of developers who found innovation and profit on a single house plot to be incompatible concepts. Down at the coalface, however, a number of the selected architects are finding the going considerably tougher.

Time is flying, and deadlines for Building Warrant applications, for example, are being missed due to the shifting economic times in which we live. Several of the projects are still without either client or developer, never mind a contractor, and with building work for most projects scheduled to be on site by late Autumn, some critical decisions need to be made at a more strategic level if we are not to see a half-constructed built landscape when the Fair opens its doors to the public next August.

A number of the project designs are predicated on imported components such as massive timber panels, now made infinitely more expensive by the £’s poor showing against the €uro and without significant alteration at this late stage, the houses may simply fail to emerge. Obviously the credit crunch was not on anyone’s radar when the idea of the Fair was first mooted, but life is not as it was a year ago and the project sponsors need to radically – and rapidly – revise the business plan if the Fair is to be a success.

In Finland, the first Housing Fairs were publicly-funded with small towns competing for the privilege to build: the model used here presumed that developers could be encouraged to innovate (without subsidy) and even profit from the construction of a single housing unit, a questionable approach anyway given the concept’s first outing in Scotland.

Now that the tectonic plates of banking have shifted inexorably to a position of financial denial to housing developers, the Fair’s initiators at government and public agency level need to dig deep into their pockets to make sure the project does not become an architectural disaster zone: should the project fail, there will be no second chance to learn from the experience. And, be assured, as the various previously-interested parties cover their tracks, it will be the architects that will end up carrying the can for their supposedly un-fundable designs. The reputational damage to the profession just doesn’t bear thinking about.

Wilson’s Weekly Wrap

http://www.architecturescotland.co.uk/news/685/Wilson’s_Weekly_Wrap.html

4 Jul 2008

Highland Housing Fair, Part Two

It’s not often I get to see such immediate impact from something I’ve written and in truth it was probably more serendipity than prescience on my part, but following my ‘warning light’ comments last week about next year’s Highland Housing Fair in Inverness, the organisers seem to have taken my advice to heart and moved with commendable rapidity to postpone the event by a year. This is far from being a bad thing – the number of developers unable to raise bank finance for their individual projects was reaching a dangerously high level and the people responsible for the Fair have made the only prudent move possible in the circumstances. Far better to delay than to fail ignominiously and in any case the reasons for the postponement can be readily understood by all. What developer was going to proceed – even had they been able to secure the necessary funding – with construction at current Inverness price levels when the bottom is dropping out of the housing market and likely to pummel the post-Housing Fair sales values?

That said, invoking Plan B can only be seen as a necessarily reactive move and the need for a well thought through Plan C is now pressing. With a shade more time on the delivery side of the project, the need to reduce construction costs without diminishing the design quality of the individual houses needs some real creative thinking. Consideration could, for example, be given to the implementation of a professional sponsorship programme focused on in-kind provision of materials and products for all of the houses planned for the site. Hardly complicated, it is one of the few routes to overall cost reduction that are available in the current economic climate, but it will require co-coordinated – and speedy – action rather than allowing the projects to individually stand or fall. 2010 is not that far away.

Highland Housing Fair Postponed for a Year

4 Jul 2008

steven.raeburn@carnyx.com

The Highland Housing Fair, billed as the first event of its kind in Scotland to showcase house designs of the future, has been unexpectedly postponed.

The event, scheduled to kick off in Inverness in a year’s time, was intended to be a showpiece event where over 50 conceptual, sustainable houses would be on display, will now take place in August 2010.

The downturn in the property market, the poor prospects for the resale of the homes to be constructed, and a lack of finance have been blamed for the postponement.

“A recommendation will be made to the Highland Housing Fair board to delay the Fair from August 2009 to August 2010, in recognition of the economic climate and the shortage of finance available to realise the ambitions of the developers who are committed to the project,” the organisers said in a statement.

“The recommendation will be made at the meeting of the Highland Housing Fair board which will take place in August 2008.”

It had been planned that the houses constructed for the fair would be available to buy, to become a “living community” once the fair ended.

Writing exclusively for architecturescotland.co.uk, Peter Wilson speculated that fear of the declining property market may have prompted the postponement.

“Far better to delay than to fail ignominiously and in any case the reasons for the postponement can be readily understood by all,” he writes.

“What developer was going to proceed – even had they been able to secure the necessary funding – with construction at current Inverness price levels when the bottom is dropping out of the housing market and likely to pummel the post-Housing Fair sales values?”

Slowdown ‘risks housing targets’

The CIH said more people will need affordable homes as mortgages dry up

Concerns have been raised that the credit crunch could prevent government affordable housing targets being met.

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) called for “imaginative” measures to build 35,000 homes a year by 2015.

It said the Scottish Government should work with housing associations or councils to use homes or land started by private firms which are lying empty.

The communities minister said he was open to working with others to buy unsold privately built homes.

The CIH’s director in Scotland, Alan Ferguson, said the current financial climate made it harder for those building affordable homes to borrow the money needed for their developments.

He said this must lead to concerns that targets would not be met for affordable housing.

The housing association sector is in a very strong position to weather the credit crunch Scottish Government spokesman

“As the credit crunch bites, we may also expect to see more people in need of an affordable solution as access to mortgages continue to dry up,” he said.

“At the same time we are seeing private housing developers struggling, leading to job losses and severely reduced building programmes.

“We believe it is time for the Scottish Government to promote some more imaginative solutions that will help deliver more affordable houses, assist first-time buyers and assist struggling private builders.”

Ministers have set a goal of increasing the rate of house building to 35,000 new homes a year by the middle of the next decade.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We welcome the CIH’s support for our efforts to improve the supply of affordable housing.

“The changes we have made to our subsidies to housing associations are essential if we are to achieve that objective at a time of great pressure on public expenditure.

“The housing association sector is in a very strong position to weather the credit crunch and the Scottish Government will continue to work with them in the meantime.”

Earlier, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a £25m package to build new council homes.

Mr Maxwell said action was already being taken to increase social housing

Last month, she also revealed details of a range of housing measures, including a £250m boost for shared equity schemes that allow people to own part of a property.

The government also plans to launch a Homeowners Support Fund, providing £25m over the next two years to help those at risk of repossession.

Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell said the measures announced by the government showed it was taking action.

He stressed the importance of dealing with the underlying problem – the “under-supply” of housing – and said he would consider working with others agencies to buy unsold privately built homes.

The minister said: “I’m open to that suggestion.

“I think the issue here is housing associations and house builders have to get together and find out what is the most appropriate way forward bring forward projects which provide houses of the right type in the right place and at the right price.

“When that’s done we’ll certainly look at them and see whether that’s affordable and that’s the right thing to do.”

Link to original article

Much of the village of Catcliffe was left under water for several days

The human cost of last summer’s floods in South Yorkshire has been revealed in a survey of the worst-hit communities.

More than eight out of 10 of those who answered a BBC Yorkshire questionnaire said they suffered mental or physical ill health as a result of the floods.

More than a fifth (22%) were so traumatised they had taken medication.

And one in five said they were not insured for the damage caused to their property in the deluge which hit the area on 25 June 2007.

Thousands of people were forced to leave their homes as flood waters rose in towns and villages around Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

Last month, BBC Yorkshire carried out a survey in some of the worst-affected streets, selecting 2,000 addresses from areas known to have requested the most aid from the South Yorkshire Flood Disaster Relief Fund.

Of the 242 people who replied, 43% had been forced out of their homes for more than six months.

The average time away from their homes was nine months, but many more have yet to return to properties which are still awaiting repair.

See full survey results

Almost a third (32%) of those who replied to the survey said the strain of coping with the aftermath of the floods had had a detrimental effect on their family life and relationships.

The Downson family, of Hunt Lane in Bentley, near Doncaster, is still living in temporary rented accommodation because of delays to house repairs.

Mark Downson told the BBC his efforts to repair the property had been dogged by a catalogue of wrangles with his insurance company and builders.

He and his wife had suffered depression and the stress had taken its toll on his two sons, aged 15 and 10.

“They’re used to having their own space and we’ve lived in four different houses since the floods,” he said.

“I’ve seen their behaviour change – they’ve become more disobedient.

“If your home life’s not as it should be everything else becomes a problem, it wears you down.”

In total 84% of those who responded said their health had suffered to some degree, either mentally or physically.

Some 67% had suffered physical ill health, including chest infections, stomach upsets and skin complaints.

Meanwhile, 70% had seen a deterioration in their mental health, including 26% who said they had suffered significant problems.

Several families said their children had been left scared of heavy rain.

‘Very confused’

Mother-of-four Lyndsey Hamblett, whose family spent 10 months living in a caravan, moved back into her house in Toll Bar 11 weeks ago.

She said: “When it started raining badly again the other week, my two boys were running around with school rulers measuring the depth of the water in the garden.

“They remembered how quickly the water had risen in the floods and were saying: ‘We’ve only got two hours to get out of the house’.

“My youngest is only just three years old and when we moved back into the house she kept saying she wanted to go home to the caravan. She’s very confused because she can’t really remember living here.”

The survey also gives an insight into the financial impact of the deluge, with 20% of those who responded saying they were not insured, leaving them with hefty bills to replace damaged possessions.

The Association of British Insurers said: “The people who do not take out home contents insurance usually make that decision because they are on a tight budget.

“They are the ones who can least afford to replace stuff once it’s damaged.”

The majority who were insured have also been adversely affected as insurance companies raised premiums when they renewed their policies.

Some residents in Catcliffe said the floods brought the community together

Before the floods, Pauline Warburton, of Bickerton Road, in the Hillsborough area of Sheffield, paid £250 for a policy with flood cover, but says she has now been asked to pay up to £900 without flood cover for a new policy.

Property values in many areas also dropped immediately after the flooding.

Jon and Andrea Smith, of Wombwell near Barnsley, told the BBC survey that two neighbouring houses which had been on the market at about £180,000 before the floods were re-valued at £130,000 to £140,000 in the immediate aftermath.

Despite their problems, 48% of the survey respondents said they had received a good or very good response from their insurance companies when they submitted their claims.

Amid the trauma of the flooding, the survey reveals a significant number of people felt the emergency brought communities and even families closer together.

One third (33%) said the experiences of last June had had a positive impact.

Michael Torr, who lives in Catcliffe near Rotherham, said before the floods he had not known his next door neighbours, but now they were best friends.

Both families had been forced to live in caravans during the clear-up, and since moving back into their homes they have taken their caravans on holiday together.

Mr Torr and about 10 other neighbours set up a flood wardens scheme to alert each other to imminent flooding.

He said: “People have got more pride now in Catcliffe.

“As much as I’d like to move for fear of flooding, I wouldn’t like to because of the neighbours.”

Stephen Nickell
Fears housing chances are becoming social polarised.

Professor Stephen Nickell said that, unless conditions change, the target of three million new homes in England by 2020 will not be met.

To get to this target, the housing industry needs to be building 240,000 homes a year, a figure that few think they will achieve this year.

The industry is already behind in its construction targets.

Just over 200,000 new homes were built last year.

Priced out

Homebuilders have cut back new building this year as a lack of mortgage products and falling house prices have cut demand.

Mr Nickell, who heads the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, believes that alongside the financial constraints local authorities are also holding up new house building.

The wealthier people in society can satisfy their housing demands, more or less, as they get richer Professor Stephen Nickell

“Unless local authorities are given a strong incentive to allow house building in their locality, it seems to me very unlikely that we will hit the housing targets,” he said.

“And if you don’t keep building these houses the prices just keep going up relative to people’s incomes.”

Government figures published recently showed that new housing work was down 5% in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007.

The Home Builders Federation, which represents major house builders, said that new building work did not show any signs of picking up.

“Right now the credit crunch is stopping people from getting the finance that people need to buy homes,” said John Slaughter, director of external affairs at the Federation.

“Longer term we need a better business environment and less regulatory cost to get the industry moving.”

The big building companies are beginning to show the strain with rumours that they may have to raise new capital to survive.

The two giants of the industry, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments, carry a total of more than £2.5 billion of debt.

That equates to more than double their combined market worth.

The financial pain being felt by the companies has already forced one of them, Persimmon, to put a halt on all new building projects.

Falling prices

Figures from the Nationwide this month showed a 2.5% drop in house prices in May, with some predicting a 20% drop by the end of 2008.

But despite falling house prices, Professor Nickell said the current situation seemed to be only benefiting the richer parts of society.

“The wealthier people in society can satisfy their housing demands, more or less, as they get richer. While the rest of us get squashed into smaller and smaller houses.” he said.

And he added that if present trends continue, things are looking bleak for the future of housing in England.

“If the present situation continues we will be less well housed than the majority of people in Europe, Australia or the United States,” he said.

Original Article

Stephen Nickell

Is currently Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford. He was an External Member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee from 2000-2006 writing a number of pieces on the subject of the UK housing market. Until 2005 he was School Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, following this role from 1984-1998 as Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economics and Statistics at the University of Oxford. He has also had earlier roles as an economist at the London School of Economics, in Paris and at the University of Princeton. He has been awarded a number of academic honours including Fellow of the British Academy and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published widely in numerous branches of applied economics.

Four and a half years on, ask him if it is still a good place to come to and he hesitates.

“It’s difficult,” he said.

“It’s no better than other areas throughout the UK. The bottom line is that Inverness has the opportunity to learn from other areas and plan accordingly but no-one seems willing to do it.”

This apparent unwillingness to get to grips with the area’s planning deficiencies seems even more surprising to Barrie given the Highlands’ economic reliance on tourism.

“Tourists do not travel to see rows of soulless housing,” he pointed out.

For Barrie, who retired from a career in business at the age of 50, coming to the Highlands was an easy move to make as communications technology allowed his own public relations and allied services firm to operate from anywhere he chose.

He still enjoys getting out on the hills at the weekends and journeying to the unspoiled West Highlands, but soon learned that other parts of the region, not least Inverness itself, were going through what he describes as a quantum change.

To Barrie, Inverness’s rapid growth is being led by developers at the expense of community benefit and with little or no strategic planning or effective planning control “The emphasis in Inverness is on trying to build houses and then try and sort out the problems afterwards,” he said. “Exhibit A is the new trunk road with talk of bulldozing the new church at Inshes and compulsory purchase of properties. You would have thought they would have reserved the land, but that would be too easy.

“There is a growing view of many people in Inverness that the council should firmly get to grips with the situation and control planning so that development can take place in a properly thought out manner.

“Consultation is a joke. It’s a meaningless word in the planning process. Objections are rarely listened to and it’s the will of the developer that prevails over the will of the community.”

His awareness of discontent with the planning situation in Inverness was only heightened by his involvement with local community organisations.

Barrie is a founder member of the Milton of Leys local residents association, a member of Inverness Crime Prevention Panel and an Inverness South Community Councillor. More recently he has become involved with the Highlands and Islands Resilience Group, a disaster planning initiative designed to look at how threats such as pandemic influenza and terrorism could affect the Highlands.

These activities bring him into regular contact with a range of business owners, chamber of commerce members, police officers, community leaders, MPs, MSPs and Highland Council officials and local councillors.

A common topic of conversation has been concern at the way Highland Council is being run and its rapidly growing external debt problem which, by March this year, stood at a gross figure of 580 million.

The loss of prime farm land to residential housing with no meaningful infrastructure is another area of concern.

It was a prominent local councillor who initially suggested that a “Planning Watch” organisation was needed.

Barrie took up the suggestion and, as communities throughout Britain have similar issues to Inverness, widened the remit to create Planning Watch UK.

The organisation’s aims, objectives and interests are not confined to property matters. The regulation of the building industry, including land maintenance and property management companies, remains of prime importance.

“At present the new house build purchaser has been described by the National Consumer Council as having less consumer protection in law than when buying a kettle. This cannot continue and in general allows developers to make huge profits at the expense of the unsuspecting purchaser,” Barrie declared.

Nationally, Planning Watch UK members and contributors are working with MPs, MSPs and other organisations to introduce legislative changes to give houseowners the protection they need, just as locally the organisation wants to see more evidence of meaningful strategic planning.

Barrie Haycock, Planning Watch UK campaigner.

“The developer profit-driven process ignores the crucial requirement of infrastructure,” Barrie commented.

“Any future development must also look at education, health and transport services through to the massive number of jobs required to support the growing communities.”

Equally important are forward planning for roads, sewage and water supply and potential flood risk in certain areas. While there are plenty of bad examples of planning in Britain Telford in Shropshire or Scotland’s post-war New Towns there are also more positive designs which the Highlands could look to, such as Poundbury in Dorset. Designed by architect Leon Krier for landowner Prince Charles, this is an integrated community of shops, businesses and private and social housing and one which the planners of the Highlands would be advised to follow, Barrie suggested.

There are similar projects proposed for the Highlands, such as the “New Urbanist” community at Tornagrain, but for Barrie these being built are on too limited a scale and the principles which they adopt should be applied throughout the Highland region.

His work for Planning Watch UK and his other activities does take up a lot of his time and includes researching and studying local authority documents or fielding inquiries from journalists, but it is something he enjoys. “I don’t like to see people misled or ripped off and I have particular empathy and concerns for elderly people who are hung out to dry by the process. Who do they turn to for support?”

Barrie is scathing of a council which, he says, “would rather spend 300,000 on a fireworks display than care of the elderly.”

“The elderly are always the first to suffer when councils run into funding problems, yet the fat cat desk jockeys who decide the financial cuts continue to thrive,” he stated.

“This issue is constantly being raised by those who suffer and is a high priority for Planning Watch UK. Care of the elderly, young and disabled has to be of major importance but is so often put at the end of the bureaucrats’ list.”

Which is why Planning Watch UK highlights anything it regards as a waste of taxpayers’ money and wants to see local authority and government quango spending kept under strict financial control.

“A local example seems to be the bizarre reported redundancy payouts made to HIE members of staff, some of whom seem to have moved to highly paid new jobs some within Highland Council while collecting massive redundancy payments. This is an absolute disgrace!” he declared.

Barrie stood as an Independent candidate in the 2007 Highland Council election for Inverness South and came last, but reveals that he feels happier outside the political system.

“If you are part of the current system, you could very quickly get drowned under the current method of operation,” he said.

That system has been made even less effective, he believes, by the recent move to a party political council from one with a tradition of political independence and the creation of multi-member wards.

“The multi-councillor ward system isn’t working, full stop. None of the councillors can agree amongst themselves. End result: chaos,” Barrie said.

“Our councillors are paid salaries now, so there should be accountability all the way down from the chief executive to the most junior councillor.”

What is not so important, to Barrie at least, is the political hue of those councillors or even the MPs and MSPs.

“I’m apolitical,” Barrie stated.

“I don’t give a damn what party is in power as long as there are sensible policies from that party and I believe most people think the same.”

c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk

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• • Housing fair malpractice to be rejected

Front line crews working for the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) allege that the charity’s ambulances are covering up for a shortage of full-time vehicles and warn that although trained to administer medical treatment, Red Cross personnel are not qualified to deal with all 999 calls.

The SAS confirmed the Red Cross was sent to incidents but insisted the organisation was providing an additional, not a replacement, service.

David Forbes, Unison’s regional convener for the ambulance service, said the public had a right to know what was happening.

“When the ambulance service in the division has been really stretched the Red Cross comes in to help,” he said. “It has been used when the SAS has been short of crews and the Red Cross have been working in Inverness on and off for some time.

“Either the SAS will ring the Red Cross or it will call and ask if the ambulance service needs any help, and it has been out on the road responding to calls.

“The Red Cross would say it is a professional organisation but it offers nowhere near the same level of care as a properly trained ambulance crew.

“They are first responders. The Red Cross will be at a road traffic accident but it hasn’t got the level of skills, competency and comprehension that our members have. It has been used for drug overdoses and road accidents and is covering more than it should be.”

The allegations came as MSPs expressed concern about the running of the SAS during a debate at Holyrood yesterday. Labour’s health spokeswoman Margaret Curran said staffing shortages had left employees under serious strain and considering industrial action while Ross Finnie, for the Lib-Dems, said the public had serious misgivings about aspects of the service.

Health minister Nicola Sturgeon responded by promising to consider any evidence about problems with the SAS but ruled out an external inquiry.

Sam Kennedy, the SAS’s Inverness-based general manager for the North and West Division, denied the Red Cross was used to plug any gaps in the ambulance service locally.

“That is simply not true,” he said. “Red Cross volunteers attend local emergency calls so that they can provide immediate life-saving first aid until an ambulance arrives. Under the first responder scheme, Red Cross volunteers, particularly in rural areas, are notified of emergency calls received. These are people highly trained by the NHS.”

A Red Cross spokeswoman confirmed its volunteers could attend all types of emergencies after the charity signed a contract with the SAS in 2006.

“If we are the nearest asset to the incident we will get the call from the SAS,” she said. “We have a memorandum of agreement with the ambulance service but the union’s claims about plugging gaps is not the understanding we are working to.

“The incidents we are called out to are not specified and that could be road accidents but an SAS ambulance always attends the scene as well. We don’t have a list of incidents we wouldn’t attend and we are not sent instead of an ambulance.”

The Red Cross did contact the ambulance service to find out if its assistance was required, the spokeswoman added, but the charity was not paid for providing the service.

However, Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon was shocked to hear Red Cross volunteers had been used for emergencies.

“A paramedic is highly skilled, trained and experienced,” she said. “The Red Cross does a wonderful job in first aid but it is unfair to expect them have the level of training and experience that paramedics have.

“The Red Cross, which is a voluntary organisation, should not have to take on this responsibility and the public does not expect it to be answering 999 calls.”

h.ross@inverness-courier.co.uk