Planning Conference on Affordable Housing – Presentations
Dorset CPRE’s Planning Conference on ‘Dorset’s Affordable Housing Crisis?’ was held online on Thursday 20th June 2024
With housing a major campaign issue for all political parties, not least the new Labour Government, the Dorset CPRE conference on the 20th June titled ‘Dorset’s Affordable Housing Crisis?’ was timely.
Dorset CPRE feels strongly that the delivery of the housing that addresses the county’s real needs requires careful consideration. To help understand the issues more fully that face the nation generally, Dorset specifically and consider potential solutions, Dorset CPRE organised a free online conference on Thursday 20th June 2024 with presentations by national and local experts in Affordable Housing.
Speakers & links to their Presentations
The Conference was chaired by the Crossbench Peer and Social Housing Leader, Lord Richard Best, with an introduction by Dorset CPRE President and former BBC Chief News Correspondent, Kate Adie.
Speakers included:
- Mike Allen, Dorset CPRE Planning Group. Mike’s presentation sets the scene from the Dorset CPRE perspective and considers how many homes Dorset really needs, what type of homes and how they can be delivered and funded
- Dr Quintin Bradley, Senior Lecturer in Planning and Housing at Leeds Beckett University, Affordable Housing Need
- Alison Ward, Director at Middlemarch Community Led Housing, Community Land Trusts
- Paul Derrien, Housing Enabling Team Leader at Dorset Council, Affordable and Social Housing in Dorset
- Elizabeth Bundred-Woodward, Planning Policy Lead at National CPRE, and Brad Taylor, Rural Policy and Campaigns Officer at National CPRE, joint presentation on Rural Affordable Housing
Please visit the Dorset CPRE’s YouTube channel to view recordings of all the presentations.
Additional reference information
In November 2023, CPRE published a report on ‘Unravelling a crisis: the state of rural affordable housing in England‘ which sets out the causes of the problem, lays bare its impact on real people and explains what the government can do to fix it.
Press read press release on ‘Housing delivered in Dorset should be focussed on meeting the county’s true needs‘ issued following the event.
Rupert Hardy, chair North Dorset CPRE Group, has written an article on the main points covered in the conference for the July edition of the New Blackmore Vale magazine.
Following the above article, Jez Hughes, Vice-Chair of Trustees, had a fascinating and thought-provoking talk with Terry Bennett about what more genuinely-affordable housing in Dorset could look like. The BV Magazine Podcast interview commences at c 28’45”.