'The government has opened the door for change' - Save West of Ifield group pleased with landmark housing decision

Save West of Ifield is campaigning against Homes England and Horsham District Council’s proposed building of up to 10,000 new homes around the west of Crawley from Ifield, through to Faygate.

Now the government has said that in future, centrally-dictated targets are "advisory" instead of mandatory. The new rules will mean that town halls will be allowed to build fewer homes if they can show that hitting the targets would significantly change the character of an area.

We asked Fenella Maitland-Smith from Save West of Ifield what the group thought of the government decision and what they thought it meant for them and Crawley as a whole.

"We’re very pleased that there could start to be a shift away from developer-led planning towards communities having more of a voice. Plus of course more emphasis on brownfield development, and genuinely affordable housing. But we won’t celebrate anything until we see the detailed proposals!

“Unfortunately we’re unlikely to see a solution to one of Crawley’s biggest problems – that our neighbouring councils are planning to encircle our town with their new development, with Crawley people having no say in what amounts to a 30% increase in the size of the town.

“Crawley has a limited amount of land and we’re built right up to our borders. Our neighbouring councils might feel they’re doing us a favour in providing housing just over the border whereas in reality they’re just hitting some of their housebuilding targets at our expense. They get the council tax from the new residents, Crawley suffers even more pressure on overloaded services and infrastructure.

“The biggest example of this could be the Homes England plans for West of Ifield where up to 10,000 houses and a dual carriageway would be built from the west of Langley Green, down across Ifield Golf Course, and eventually around Bewbush out to Lambs Green and Faygate. Horsham Council is likely to include Phase 1 – 3,000 houses – in its Local Plan, due for publication any day now. But Michael Gove’s announcements mean that Horsham should revisit and revise its Plan.

“Horsham Council must delay its Local Plan process and make the case for much lower targets.

“Horsham is suffering badly from the ‘vicious circle’ of target-setting – very high building rates since 2015 are driving even higher future targets, which are then pumped-up another 60% by the ‘affordability adjustment’. Using 2021 Census data the target would be over 1,200 new houses a year! And with at least 80% of Horsham’s new houses being occupied by people from outside the district, Horsham is now facing unsustainable population increase.

We also call on Horsham Council not to use the West of Ifield site as a politically convenient get-out for unpopular development. It's a common tactic - a council putting something 'difficult' on its border to minimise the number of their voters affected.

“The government has opened the door for change. And we're pleased that Henry Smith signed the Amendment that made this happen. But we now want to see our MPs and local authorities pushing for new policy that delivers real benefits. Let’s see a positive shift away from too many greenfield sites like West of Ifield being sacrificed for easy profit and political expediency, and towards the social housing and infrastructure needed by local communities.”