Important meeting tonight in Duns between the planners and local community Councils. This is to discuss the draft local plan which will set the parameters for development in the Borders for the next decade. The draft at present is fine and reflects local concerns about the need not to overdevelop . But there are strong contrary pressures from developers (and from some landowners) to take advantage of a buoyant property market and build, build, build. One report suggests that house prices in this area are rising at 90% above the national average so there is big money to be made from people who need to be near the two major regional metropolises but can't afford city prices. One threat is presented by a recent report on housing in the countryside which seeks to 'relax' the fairly strict rules about building in rural areas outwith the present village boundaries. Another development is (reportedly) the offer from a local landowner to provide cheap land for what is known as 'Affordable Housing' -a slightly misleading description as lots of wealthy incomers seem to be able to afford quite pricey properties at sums often 50% over the asking price. Indeed the SBC has yet to come up with a definition of 'affordable housing' But to the Berwickshire Housing Association it means cheap (and sometimes rather nasty) properties to rent out to disadvantaged people who can't afford to compete for housing on the open market.
However deserving AH (or lets call it social-0r even sociable housing-little dwellings which get together for a good gossip when no one is looking?) it can be a Trojan horse for developers. A well meaning (or otherwise) land owner gives land for say 6 sociable houses in a large green field. Offer accepted-and then the same field is subsequently declared unsuitable for agriculture (as it has 6 chatty houses in it) and lo and behold the developers are falling over themselves to compete for a large project of Executive Homes at three hundred grand apiece. So if such an idea is a non starter under the local plan it could well be persued via Housing in the Countryside-in a flexible way of course. Far fetched? Watch this space
