Starter Homes and London Plan back door superseding NPPF

[Ram Selva]

Hi,

Starter Homes is the mechanism that is key to changing 'Generation Rent 
in to Generation Buy' as the con job of an "ideology" powering 
international financial market forces that has pushed the 'Housing and 
Planning Bill 2015-16' to it's current confusing status.

Starter Homes are also poles apart replacement to Planning Gain (section 
106) commitments which were being screwed anyway in high land value 
areas.

Anyone with deeper insight or aware of good critiques/commentaries on 
this facilitation of Starter Homes?:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/467323/Starter_Homes_Local_Authorityb_Fund_Prospectus_20151012_full.pdf


"This [paltry sum of] money will allow Councils to bring forward 
additional [in London, seriously highly valued] land and make it viable 
for Starter Homes, by helping to fund preparation and clearance work"

---

A key promoter of Starter Homes is Pocket Living.
Who is Pocket Living is another question altogether ...

http://www.building.co.uk/interview-with-marc-vlessing-pocket/5056539.article

[...]
"Pocket refuses to include any social units in their developments, even 
when the number of homes they propose would normally require a social 
element. Next they refuse to provide car parking, arguing that their 
target market doesn’t require parking and instead provide access to a 
car club and bike parking facilities. Then they refuse to build anything 
other than one-bedroom apartments, on which they can command higher 
margins than for two and three-bedroom flats. And then they build the 
flats smaller than usually required by the Greater London Authority’s 
London Plan - at 400ft2 rather than 500ft2 for a one-bedroom unit"
[...]
" “The good thing about the British planning system is that it’s case 
based,” he says. “So, if you can get your new concept through a number 
of local authorities it becomes a precedent that other local authorities 
have to start using. You can make policy through the back door.”"