Localism isn't just for the invited

At lunchtime today I waved my hand to gain access to a community, five minutes later that community voted me down. Yet rather than harbouring anger it’s only frustration and desperation I feel.

At thirty four I feel it’s time to buy my first property; rent is not an efficient use of salary when my pension is already behind. However, a move from Birmingham to Brighton has filled me with trepidation. In Birmingham I could buy a three bedroom house for less than £150,000 but in Brighton I’d be lucky to get a studio apartment. Therefore, I've been looking for more creative ways to stay a Brightonian.

Brighton and Hove has no tangible policies to help people stay in the city, despite supply being at an all time low. Local plans are not supportive of self-build and neighbourhood planning is becoming preclusive. Brighton is in a perpetual state of investor and renter.

That’s why when I found a plot of land at auction that could fit one very small home I jumped at the chance. The plot was a public open space in Patcham, Brighton, with a liability to maintain a common space. No planning permission was granted and it included three green parcels also including maintenance responsibility (no homes could be built on them due to size/location). All this was fine with me; I wanted to stay in the area for the long term and love a bit of gardening.

Cautiously, I wandered down to the auction with all the money I’d saved over the past years. I decided I’d use £11,000 of it as my purchase would be speculative. I needed to save the other half to continue saving for a deposit or potentially gain planning permission.

As the auction progressed I went to my absolute limit but found myself outbid when the hammer fell at £16,000, more than ten times the guide price, I bobbed around to see who had beaten me.
It turned out to be 19 out of 56 local people who didn’t want to see the land developed and did want improved maintenance on the common ground. I chatted to their representatives and congratulated them.

As a policy advisor who believes in good placemaking my heart sank after being given the bitter sweet news. It was a plot perfect for appropriate development and I know myself I’d be an active and supportive member of the community. 20 years as a volunteer and chair of community groups has enamoured me to engagement.

Of course this community group wasn’t to know that and they’re seeking to protect and not project development. The land will apparently go into a trust, or, as the representative put it, "you never know, we could make some money on it".
However on this - my first financial risk - the question will always haunt me; does a community feel excluding potential stakeholders is positive community action?

With little support for local people building their own homes, it’s now communities which can hold the keys, quite literally. If they decide their community is full they can protect against individual ambitions with finance or neighbourhood planning. Their cause may be to stop large development but they’re also stopping local people from being part of their community. They’re adding to the housing crisis.

As wealth grows for owner occupiers it shrinks for first time buyers. If neighbourhoods continue shunning that reality, large sites of unaffordable homes will be rightly forced on them. Old communities won't become refreshed, they'll become new, giant communities.

In my case and thousands of others, we're already on the outside looking in. Wages are low, house prices are high, freeholds are higher, planning disproportionately supports big developers and land/house holding is rife. (A quick search for Homewise should uncover that)
Buying a house the traditional way is very difficult and mortgages are impossible on auction properties. For many of us small plots feel like the only hope, yet now even communities are closing those opportunities.

We can only start fixing the system by accepting that people need a localism agenda, but even when we recognise that, nothing will change unless we realise localism isn't just for the invited.