Beyond Eco-towns Applying the Lessons from Europe - Urbed

8.0
References
i. The Callcutt Review of Housebuilding Delivery (22 November 2007) by the former Chief Executive of Crest Nicholson
and English Partnerships looked at the business model used for new housing. The rate of sales on individual sites was
surprisingly low (typically only one a week) suggesting that volume house-builders may prefer to avoid competition. The report
recommended that more land should be made available for small builders and that institutional investors should become
involved, not just volume housebuilders, through an ‘investor model’.
ii.
iii.
Eco-towns Prospectus published by Communities and Local Government (July 2007). Based on the Town and Country
Planning Association work.
Faced with disappointingly low rates of house building, and widespread unaffordability, the government commissioned a host
of studies into why Britain has not built more, several of which have made comparisons with Europe, but without probing into
the underlying differences:
• Eco-towns: Living a Greener Future published by Communities and Local Government (April 2008) as a
consultation paper
• The Egan Review on skills for Sustainable Communities (19 April 2004) by a former motor industry leader
pointed out that while local authorities should be leading the process, they lacked both the leadership and project
management skills to do so. Importantly the Review showed that building Sustainable Communities involves far
more than just housing. There are eight spokes in the Egan ‘wheel’, which form the basis for a series of programmes
to provide training and advice, which the Regional Centres of Excellence and the Academy for Sustainable
Communities among others have sought to provide.
• The Barker Review of Housing Supply (17 March 2004) by a Bank of England economist put the blame for house
price inflation on production rates lagging behind household formation. The ponderous British planning system leads
to builders profiting from planning permissions rather than their efficiency in building what customers want. The Review
recommended using the uplift in land values to help finance related infrastructure. One result should be the Community
Infrastructure Levy.
• Ends and Means: The Future Roles of Social Housing in England (February 2007) CASE report 34. An
important report into social housing by Professor John Hills who is Director of the Centre for Analysing Spatial
Exclusion at the London School of Economics, highlighted the problem of ‘residualisation’ whereby most
social housing tenants today are workless. This has led on to reviews of the benefits system, and to the idea of
encouraging investment in private renting.
• International Trends in Housing Tenure and Mortgage Finance by Professor Christine Whitehead and
Dr Kathleen Scanlon (LSE), Council of Mortgage Lenders commission (November 2004).
iv.
First European Quality of Life Survey: Life Satisfaction Happiness and a Sense of Belonging (2006). Böhnke, Petra,
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
v. Eco-towns: Learning from Best Practice to be published by the The Academy for Sustainable Communities (2008)
produced by ERBEDU and URBED.
vi.
Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth www.cambridgeshirehorizons.co.uk/qualitycharter
28