Houses

[sinkov]

Just reading yet again this morning about the housing crisis, we are short of them, new ones are not being built anything like fast enough, and the big problem is, apparently, Nimbyism, builders can't get plans passed as no one wants a new estate springing up near them, local MPs and councillors lodge objections, and the government is being lambasted for not doing anything about it.

I don't get it, I must live in a parallel universe here up north. I cannot count the number of new estates that have sprung up in the Ribble Valley in the last ten years, they are everywhere. Last week I was in the Castle grounds, there's a superb elevated view out towards the coast, what was most noticeable was the huge number of new tiled roofs you could see on the outskirts of Clitheroe, where not long ago you could see nothing but green fields. When you approach Clitheroe on the A59 you are greeted with a forest of yellow signs, directing prospective buyers presumably, to the new estates.

New housing estates have extended Clitheroe towards Whalley, they have extended Whalley towards Clitheroe, and in the middle Barrow has extended in all directions. It cannot be long before Whalley and Clitheroe are one and the same town. Whenever I travel elsewhere in the north it's the same story, new housing estates everywhere, just on one trip last week I saw several new ones going up just outside Harrogate and Knaresborough.

I'm baffled, just where is it difficult to get new houses built, it doesn't seem to be a problem in the parts of the north I frequent.