5,200 homes on the way in South Lakeland

A Government planning inspector has rubber-stamped a blueprint identifying 88 sites where new homes and businesses might be built.

Towns and villages are now expected to see major building projects coming forward – and residents ready to go into battle with planners.

South Lakeland District Council says the land allocations document is vital for the area’s social and economic prosperity over the next 12 years. But campaign groups insist the jobs and infrastructure are not in place to support such an influx of people.

Conservative opposition councillors to the Lib Dem authority branded it a ‘developer’s charter’ and said the numbers were too ‘excessive’.

But families desperate for homes, affordable housing campaigners, developers and business leaders all champion the plan.

For Kendal, it could mean 2,000 new homes being built – with a further 1,200 in UIverston and 500 in Grange.

Nearly 300 houses could go across Broughton, Urswick, Greenood, Kirkby Lonsdale and Swarthmoor, with 223 in Cartmel, Cark, Flookburgh and Allithwaite.

Thirty five per cent of all homes have to be ‘affordable’. At current prices it would mean two bedroom houses selling for £95,000 and three bedroom properies for £110,000.

Other properties would be sold to housing associations to be made available for cheaper rent.

It could see the creation of 1,800 new affordable homes in South Lakeland addressing one of the area’s perennial issues.

The council would not be involved in any house building. Developers and landowners would have to bring forward schemes and landowners are not obligated to hand over any land. Schemes could still be turned down at planning committee stage or on appeal.

Coun Peter Thornton, leader of SLDC, warned that had the authority done nothing, then new homes and employment sites would be imposed on the area from Government - resulting in sprawling and uncontrolled ‘patchwork’ development across the area.

Coun Thornton said: “The situation is urgent. We must retain and attract young people and suitable jobs or our area will decline.”

Of claims it would ruin open countryside, Coun Thornton said the proposals would represent ‘concrete’ on just half a per cent of the actual greenfields in South Lakeland.

“Good jobs and affordable homes are hugely important to young people in South Lakeland. We are determined to play our part in making sure they are provided,” said Coun Thornton.

The authority says around 4,300 households in South Lakeland are currently in ‘housing need’ and a lack of business premises means companies are not investing in South Lakeland and home-grown success stories cannot expand.

SLDC also cited a recent report by housing charity Shelter which found that less than three per cent of homes in South Lakeland were considered affordable for families with children.

Lakes MP Tim Farron said: “This will help make sure that development is sustainable in South Lakeland over the next few years. It will also help stop a development free-for-all. But we must put this in context - this plan is just that, a plan. It doesn't actually build a single home."

"We also need to use this plan to attract businesses and bring well paid, hi-tech and manufacturing jobs to our community."

However, Coun David Williams, who leads the Conservatives on SLDC, said the plan was ‘the wrong one for our communities".

"While I appreciate that the inspector found the plan sound we have grave reservations as to certain aspects,” he said.

“We are unable to accurately predict the exact number of houses needed but we believe that the amount put forward by the Lib Dems is excess to requirements."

Kendal resident Dennis Reed, who chairs the Green Spaces Committee – a coalition of people set up to fight the plans – desc-ribed the inspector’s endorsement of the document as an ‘affront to local democracy.’

“It could have been written by the council three years ago and saved thousands in mock public consultations,” said Mr Reed.

Kents Bank residents believe their population would increase by an estimated 40 per cent with the green gap between Kents Bank and Allithwaite ‘reduced to a few hundred metres’. Spokes-woman Valerie Kennedy said residents were ‘disappointed’.

However, Judith Derbyshire, head of Cumbria Rural Housing Trust, claimed the plan needed to go further.

“It is great that SLDC is sticking to its guns and making 35 per cent of the homes affordable because that means people now living with parents or moving into the area for work stand a chance of getting a home,” she said.

“However, who buys the homes that will not be affordable and are on the open market? It is likely to be retirees. While that is entirely their prerogative, I would like to see the affordable percentage allocation higher and grants given by the government to make this possible.”

Yesterday the Lake District National Park Authority was due to agree a new blueprint setting out where 441 new homes could be built on 14.7 hectares of land in the national park.

A further 8.9 hectares of land have been set aside for employment – including new proposals to redevelop Bowness Bay and The Glebe.