All of the 18 Liberal Democrat Councillors on the Conservative-run Dacorum Borough Council have sent an Open Letter to the Rt Hon Sir Mike Penning MP for Hemel Hempstead and to Gagan Mohindra MP for South West Hertfordshire.
In it they point out that the housing target which the Government is imposing on Dacorum Borough is based on 2014 housing estimates instead of the more up-to-date 2018 estimates. The consequence of using these outdated estimates instead of the latest ones, is to inflate housing targets across Hertfordshire as a whole by nearly 20%, with a similarly anomalous increases for for Dacorum, Watford and Three Rivers.
They ask their two MPs to take the matter up with the Minister and ask for the latest and more accurate estimates to be used instead of figures that are 4 years older and correspondingly less reliable.
Sir Mike Penning MP and Gagan Mohindra MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
23 December 2020
Dear Sir Mike and Mr Mohindra
I write to you as one of the constituency MPs covering the Borough of Dacorum. I write on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Group of Dacorum Borough Council to enlist your support in addressing the absurdly high housing target set for the Borough.
We note with interest the publication on 16 December of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) Consultation Outcome entitled on GOV.UK This brought the welcome news that the most recent algorithm underpinning the ‘standard method’ for determining local authorities’ house building targets, which it describes as a “mutant algorithm”, will be replaced by a return to the previous algorithm applied by MHCLG, which applied a 40% cap on adjustments. , the rationale for this reversal of policy is stated as:
We applaud all three of these endeavours and wish Dacorum to play its part in solving the housing shortage, particularly for local young people who cannot afford houses or experience long waits on Dacorum Borough Council’s (DBC) housing list. We feel returning to a capped standard method in conjunction with the 35% uplift for the 20 largest cities can help achieve the three intentions listed above. . This approach:
In our own district of Dacorum, rather than working to reduce pressure on Green Belt, the new approach has actually increased pressure on Green Belt on the edge of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty. As shown in the table below Dacorum will now see the housing target go up even higher. This target of 1023 is compared to an ONS projection that has halved to 355 and a current local plan requirement of 430 houses a year.
T. Applying the government’s data as analysed by Lichfield’s (www.lichfield.uk) following the Consultation Outcome referred to in the first paragraph, Hertfordshire’s housing target increases by 19% whilst all the other Home Counties’ targets are reduced ranging from Surrey -6% to Sussex -23%.
More than this, Dacorum’s housing target of 1023 houses a year is higher than four of the twenty most-populated cities that MHCLG has stated should have increased targets to relieve pressure from the greenbelt. These are: Hull (new target: 536), Plymouth (623), Reading (876) and Wolverhampton (1,013).
We appeal to you to raise the following flaws in the government’s approach to house-building until it devises an approach that provides sufficient affordable housing without causing unnecessary pressure on the Green Belt.
The government continues to apply the rationale of supply and demand in determining where new houses are built. However, the housing ‘market’ is a distorted one for several reasons:
Dacorum is under greater pressure for development for two main reasons:
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
(on behalf of the Liberal Democrat Group of Dacorum Borough Council)
Cc Andrew Williams (Leader, DBC); Claire Hamilton (CEO, DBC);