The immediate agenda - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 398

Inevitably, given the incremental, bottom-up process being followed, the eventual
outcome of governance reform cannot be determined. However it is questionable
whether, in the Government's desire to appease local authorities, the degree of
flexibility being offered is excessive and whether any coherent overall pattern will
emerge, both within and between individual regions. This applies not only to transport
in isolation but also to its relationship with other functions meriting multi-authority
partnership, notably spatial planning.
Draft guidance published by DfT meanwhile focuses on transport's relationship
with economic development:
All authorities considering governance arrangements … will want to consider
carefully how transport can be planned and managed in a way which best supports
their aspirations for sustainable economic growth …
Local authorities considering changes to transport governance will wish to
ensure that there is a read across to any work they may be doing on Multi-Area
Agreements and that the transport governance changes are developed in the
wider economic development context.
The [Sub-National Review] indicated that the Government would work with
interested sub-regions to explore the potential for sub-regional authorities which
would enable pooling of responsibilities for economic development … But the
Government does not consider that consideration of broader possibilities should
necessarily delay the implementation of improvements in transport.
(DfT 2007q paras 2.6-2.11)
23.8 Growth Points, Eco-towns and the Community
Infrastructure Levy
The Government's efforts to increase substantially the rate of new house-building
has brought attention to the issue of achieving appropriate infrastructure provision in
the places earmarked for growth. This section considers the scale and location of the
principal increases, the initiatives which have been taken to facilitate the necessary
infrastructure provision and some of the issues arising.
The Sustainable Communities Plan published by ODPM in 2003 proposed
increasing the targets for new housing in the four major 'growth areas' in the south-
eastern quarter of England to a total of 900,000 by 2031 (8.8). Local authorities and
other delivery agencies in these areas were given special 'growth area funding' (GAF)
for their additional spending on services and facilities. The Housing Review undertaken
by Kate Barker nevertheless concluded that there was a continuing shortfall in supply
which needed to be addressed in order to reduce house price inflation, improve the
performance of the UK economy via greater labour mobility and ease problems of poor
housing (Barker 2004).
In 2007 the Government reported that the housing stock was growing by 185,000 a
year against a projected growth in the number of households of 223,000. Accordingly
a new national target was set of 240,000 additional homes a year by 2016 and the
delivery of 2 million new homes by that date (DCLG 2007e). The components of this
total are listed in Box 23.5.
One new element was an additional 100,000 homes to be included in local
authority plans within five partnership areas and 22 other 'growth points'. These are