News / Housing
‘Bristol needs to build more homes but the planning system is holding it back’
New analysis shows how high housing costs in Bristol place strains on its economic performance.
A short supply of land and insufficient level of development have contributed to mounting housing costs that make living in the city unaffordable for many, despite the growth in highly productive jobs.
The analysis from Centre for Cities says that there should be a requirement for local authorities to allocate land around non-urban train stations for development and use Local Development Orders to support housebuilding around urban train stops.
The think tank’s report, ‘Ship Shape? How the planning system is holding back Bristol’s economy’, says that green belt reform “is vital for Bristol to expand and meet housing needs”.
The green belt around Bristol is 4.5 times larger than the city itself, the report estimates; and it only needs “limited encroachment” on green belt land to add thousands of new homes.
One example in the report is Pilning – the least used station in Gloucestershire – which Centre for Cities says has space within an 800m radius for as many as 9,500 new homes.
The report also recommends that the government give spatial planning powers to the WECA metro mayor “to better encourage and coordinate development across Bristol and its commuter belt” as “Bristol’s reach does not stop at Bristol City Council’s boundaries”.
As part of this, North Somerset should join WECA as a full member.
Centre for Cities chief executive, Andrew Carter, said: “Bristol’s economic performance sets the benchmark for big cities across the UK but it needs to build more homes and the planning system is holding it back.
“The chancellor chose planning reform as the focus of the national mission to get the economy growing again.
“Bristol’s example shows why that’s the right approach.
“If successful cities like Bristol are seeing their economies held back by the lack of housebuilding, this amounts to a significant constraint on the nation’s economy as a whole.
“National planning policy should enable our cities to expand up and out, so that they can fulfil their wider function of creating productive jobs and driving prosperity in their wider area.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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