Housing Development in Sussex
On the day that the government has announced 116,000 new homes in Sussex, local
authorities, developers and conservation groups are turning their
minds to the question: "where will these homes go?"
The problem is people: we reproduce, which means the
population grows. We live for an extremely long time, which
means the population grows. Our healthcare system (despite its
well-documented problems) is one of the best in the world, which
means the population grows. More people are attracted to the UK
than decide to emigrate (not least our own
wonderful MD), which means the population grows.
The upshot is that there's a hell of a lot of people out there…
all of whom expect 4 walls, a roof, and increasingly an en-suite, a
backyard, easy motorway access & a supermarket within a mile or
so.
Development and Environmental Issues
This takes its strain on the environment. With local
authorities' strategic plans coming up for review the planners are
becoming increasingly desperate to find places to put all of the
people a) needing accommodation now, and b) planning for those who
will need it within the next 7-10 years. This is creating some
serious issues that need to be weighed up. The complexities of town
planning are endless, but, insofar as large-scale residential
developments are concerned, they tend to boil down to: greenfield
or brownfield.
For those living in the centre of a congested, overcrowded,
stressful & busy city it would seem utterly preposterous to
squeeze yet more
poky units into whichever nooks or crannies developers and
their architects can find. There is also the abominable idea that
is frequently mooted of pulling down some Late Victorian or
Edwardian grand townhouse-cum-hospital-cum-school in order to stick
up a faceless, generic block of functional & uninspiring flats
(the old Royal Alex
Childrens' Hosptial, anyone?)
For those living in the green-belt or some idylic village, the
idea of bulldozing an ancient forest, copse or village green in
order to erect an out-of-scale eyesore is environmental
vandalism of the highest order.
So, faced with these two options, where should the people be
placed?