Housing and planning reforms could lead to greater social inequality - TCPA

The government's plans to reform housing and planning laws could lead to greater social inequality, a report by the Town and Country Planning Association and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has claimed.

The report, Policy analysis of housing and planning reform, said that the combination of the end of regional planning and policy and an incentive scheme for housing which rewards high-market-demand areas may have “long-term implications” for the distribution of England's population. The report also claimed that caps on housing benefit, due to be introduced in 2013, may intensify social segregation.

Kate Henderson, TCPA Chief Executive said: "The potential inequalities of the housing and planning reforms play out at both a city scale, in terms of possible concentrations of deprivation, and at an England-wide scale in terms of reinforcing, rather than mediating, long-term regional inequalities.

"What is most striking is that the planning system – outside of London, which retains its regional London Plan – will have to deal with these new challenges at a time when both the framework and the resources have been significantly reduced."

Individual authorities which find themselves net receivers of displaced low income families will have to deal with these pressures to plan for and provide homes on a purely localised basis, with only voluntary relationships with their neighbours and the wider sub-region, she added.

However, the report acknowledged that the previous planning system had meant that many communities felt little ownership over the decisions surrounding housing provision and that the government was right to identify a lack of local legitimacy as a key problem in need of reform. It also acknowledged that the extent of the impact of the end of regional planning is difficult to gauge without further study.

Dr Hugh Ellis, TCPA Chief Planner and lead author of the report, said: "The net result of these reforms will be period of uncertainty in how we plan for housing. Ultimately, we as a society will have to confront the need for planning structures and incentives that reinforce sustainable and socially just outcomes, rather than potentially undermining them."

A copy of the report can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: HousingandPlanningReform