Supplementary memorandum from Save the
Countryside, Cheltenham
SUPPLEMENTARY EVIDENCE
FOLLOWING ORAL
EVIDENCE GIVEN
ON 25 OCTOBER
2010
Omission
We should be grateful if you could correct the following
omission.
Alice Ross should have stated to the Committee that
she was also representing our umbrella organisation Save Our Green
Spaces (SOGS) and its 40 member groups throughout the south west
as well as our own campaign group Save the Countryside.
We feel this is important as the other SOGS members
by her omission were denied any acknowledgement and it otherwise
might appear in the record as though only two small community
groups held the opinions expressed at the hearing rather than
many people from Cornwall to Dorset to Somerset to Bristol to
the Gloucestershires.
From the witness list, it seems possible indeed that
no further community groups may be called to give oral evidence.
In this case the SOGS insights may be necessary for a balanced
view with a community component, particularly as we are aware
of other cases nationwide—some, we believe, in the constituencies
of some of the Committee—where similar RSS housing target
problems were encountered.
Addition
Alice Ross did not get the opportunity to reply to
the question on incentives.
We should be grateful if you would consider the following
observations.
- If incentives are to be offered then they should
be offered equally on renovated properties brought back into occupation
to ensure regeneration of urban areas and re-use of existing housing
stock before construction on Greenfield sites.
- If incentives are to be offered they should only
be offered on affordable homes, which are likely to be in one
of the lower council tax bands (say Band A)—otherwise cash-strapped
local authorities might tend to favour permitting developments
of numbers of large properties at the upper end of the scale (say
Band H) which would in comparison each yield three or four times
the council tax to be retained on the A properties, especially
at 125%.
October 2010
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