• Swindon & Wiltshire Economy
• Monday July 22 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Green belt ‘throttling Bristol’s economy’ – Centre for Cities

The 67-year-old green belt around Bristol is ‘throttling’ the city’s economic growth and making housing more and more unaffordable, according to a major new report.

‘Ship shape? How the planning system is holding back Bristol’s economy’ argues the UK’s planning system needs a major overhaul to ‘ensure big cities like Bristol can fulfil their economic potential.’

Centre for Cities says that the short supply of land and insufficient level of development have contributed to mounting housing costs that make living in the city unaffordable, despite the growth in highly productive jobs.

It says the upcoming revision of the National Planning Policy Framework should set a requirement for local authorities to allocate land around non-urban train stations for development in their local plans and use Local Development Order powers to support housebuilding around urban train stops.

Bristol is an economic powerhouse

The report says Bristol’s GVA nearly doubled from 2004-2021, making it one of the strongest performers of any UK city.

The number of digital, science and tech jobs has risen by double the national average rate since 2009, while the number of jobs overall rose by 21 per cent.

Bristol’s economic growth has been supported by a rising population, and new arrivals to the city have been disproportionately high-skilled.

But housing is becoming less affordable

Bristol has built more housing than most other cities, says the report, ranking it 10th in the UK ahead of London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

However, housing affordability has worsened across the income scale over this period.

In 2004, Bristol already had a housing crisis, ranking 16th from bottom out of all large British cities and large towns in the UK for housing affordability.

Since then, house prices have more than doubled while rents have risen faster than anywhere else in the UK, far outstripping wage growth in the city.

Credit: Centre for Cities

Blame the green belt?

The report says the close proximity of green belt to the city centre is major factor constraining the supply of new homes workers can live and planning reform – including green belt reform – is vital for Bristol to expand and meet housing needs.

Central locations such as Park Street and Temple Meads are just one mile and 1.7 miles away respectively from green belt’s boundaries, and the green belt around Bristol is 4.5 times larger than Bristol itself.

In several places, a short commute away from Bristol city centre, development could add thousands of new homes with only limited encroachment on green belt, say the report’s authors.

They single out Pilning station, to the north west of the city near Severn Beach, which has space within an 800m radius for between 7,500 and 9,500 new homes.

Bristol needs to build up, and out

The report suggests Bristol needs to build up, as well as out.

It says urban density in the city’s existing footprint is low by UK standards, and UK standards are low compared to European standards. Housing density is lower than in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Newcastle.

If housing density in the city centre were as dense as in Manchester, there would be an extra 2,000 homes.

The report also argues that Bristol needs to expand outwards. It points out that 49 per cent of the West of England Combined Authority area is designated green belt.

And while development over the past 67 years has been northwards into South Gloucestershire, there has been little development to the south west, into North Somerset.

This part of the green belt is just a mile from the city centre, and development here would lead to shorter commutes to the centre.

The report suggests the West of England mayor should be given spatial planning powers and that North Somerset should join WECA as a full member to facilitate growth to the south west of the city.

Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “Bristol’s economic performance sets the benchmark for big cities across the UK but it needs to build more homes and the planning system is holding it back.

“The Chancellor chose planning reform as the focus of the national mission to get the economy growing again. Bristol’s example shows why that’s the right approach.

“If successful cities like Bristol are seeing their economies held back by the lack of housebuilding, this amounts to a significant constraint on the nation’s economy as a whole.

“National planning policy should enable our cities to expand up and out, so that they can fulfil their wider function of creating productive jobs and driving prosperity in their wider area.”

Main image by shauking at Pixabay