Fwd: [Diggers350] Starter Homes and London Plan back door superseding NPPF

[Ram Selva]

the gov.uk announcement link was broken - apologies.

corrected link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/467323/Starter_Homes_Local_Authority_Fund_Prospectus_20151012_full.pdf

---

also the buiding.co.uk article could be behind a Paywall ..please mail 
directly for workarounds or a low quality PDF copy which'd print fine.

- Ram

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Diggers350] Starter Homes and London Plan back door 
superseding NPPF
Date: 09-03-2016 07:42
 From: "Ram Selva seeds at snail.org.uk [Diggers350]" 
<Diggers350-noreply at yahoogroups.com>
To: TLIO group <TheLandIsOurs at yahoogroups.com>, Massimo 
<diggers350 at yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: Ram Selva <seeds at snail.org.uk>

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.”"