Basildon council have launched a nine week public consultation on the draft Local Plan. The consultation is open now and will close on 12 January 2025.
Now is the time to make your views known. Basildon council want to hear from you.
As proposed, the plan will deliver over 27,000 new homes over the next 20 years. It is an excessive and unjustified number driven by a Government algorithm that ignores the true local housing need, dismisses local constraints such as the Green Belt, and pays little heed to sustainability in existing communities or the environment.
To put 27,000 into context;
Now is the time to make your views known. Basildon council want to hear from you.
As proposed, the plan will deliver over 27,000 new homes over the next 20 years. It is an excessive and unjustified number driven by a Government algorithm that ignores the true local housing need, dismisses local constraints such as the Green Belt, and pays little heed to sustainability in existing communities or the environment.
To put 27,000 into context;
- it would see more than a 30% increase in the population with around 65,000 new residents in just 20 years
- it is equivalent to building another Billericay AND Wickford in the borough
- it is 3 to 4 times the real local housing need based on credible Office of National Statistics data
- around 17,000 will require the existing Green Belt to be released
- over 5,000 are destined for Billericay and the immediate area, all on the Green Belt. See map below.
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Policy IF1 would see development on the border of Norsey Wood, harming wildlife there. New housing & employment areas would also extend northward from Basildon with over 1,000 more houses at Steeple View and Noak Bridge. See sites E2, H12, H22 & H26. |
Furthermore, the draft plan provides scant details, let alone guarantees, that services and infrastructure will be increased and improved to meet such a huge rise in the local population. Our schools and health facilities are today already over subscribed. Our roads are congested.
Building this scale of housing without first improving infrastructure is wholly unacceptable. The plan suggests that improvements will come when needed. But when it is needed it is already too late as new schools and doctor surgeries will take years to build, assuming the providers (NHS and education authority) are willing to provide them. Basildon council have very little control over these external providers. The same is true for highways improvements.
Basildon council claims that building more houses will make them affordable, which to most people means cheaper. But there is no evidence that mass house building reduces prices. Most economist agree - high house prices and high rents are here to stay. The Government doesn't want to see house prices fall as it would highlight economic weakness and would be counter to their growth aspirations. In fact, very few want to see house prices fall other than those desperate to find a place to live and call their own!
The Local Plan, as being proposed, won't benefit many people living in Basildon borough today. It will be just as hard to get on the housing ladder as it is now. Local wages are so far out of step with house prices and rent costs that the gap is now impossible to close.
This is a Local Plan that will affect everyone in the borough in some way and at some point over the next 20 years. It is therefore important that all residents understand what is being put forward and take the opportunity to air their views, thoughts and concerns. This is probably the only chance we have to try to make a difference, and make a better Local Plan for the area.
Please take part. Please do not leave it to others. The more the better.
Building this scale of housing without first improving infrastructure is wholly unacceptable. The plan suggests that improvements will come when needed. But when it is needed it is already too late as new schools and doctor surgeries will take years to build, assuming the providers (NHS and education authority) are willing to provide them. Basildon council have very little control over these external providers. The same is true for highways improvements.
Basildon council claims that building more houses will make them affordable, which to most people means cheaper. But there is no evidence that mass house building reduces prices. Most economist agree - high house prices and high rents are here to stay. The Government doesn't want to see house prices fall as it would highlight economic weakness and would be counter to their growth aspirations. In fact, very few want to see house prices fall other than those desperate to find a place to live and call their own!
The Local Plan, as being proposed, won't benefit many people living in Basildon borough today. It will be just as hard to get on the housing ladder as it is now. Local wages are so far out of step with house prices and rent costs that the gap is now impossible to close.
This is a Local Plan that will affect everyone in the borough in some way and at some point over the next 20 years. It is therefore important that all residents understand what is being put forward and take the opportunity to air their views, thoughts and concerns. This is probably the only chance we have to try to make a difference, and make a better Local Plan for the area.
Please take part. Please do not leave it to others. The more the better.
| To take part in the consultation click here | For advice & guidance click here |
