Saint Consulting – United Kingdom – Executive Summary of The Saint Index

2008 UK Saint Index – Headline Results

NIMBYism – It’s getting worse

86% of the British public can now be classified as NIMBYs, a discernable increase from the last two years’ surveys (2007 – 83%, 2006 – 84%)

Interestingly, this year British women have polled as more aggressively NIMBY than men for the first time
As usual the late baby boomers, those aged between 45-54, are decidedly more NIMBY than any other age group
For the first time suburbanites are more NIMBY than those living in urban and rural areas
Geographically, the most NIMBY areas are the South West, the South East and Eastern region with Wales, Scotland and the North East the least NIMBY, but not by much

Almost a quarter of all households have objected to a planning application in their local area in the last year

The last year in particular has seem a dramatic increase (2008 – 24%, 2007 – 16%, 2006 – 19%)
The 55-64 age group are the most regular objectors
The higher the social class, the more active the objector (AB – 34%, C1 – 24%, C2 – 19%, DE – 17%)
Lib Dems have once again claimed the top spot from the Tories as the political group most likely to object
The three regions where objectors are most active are Eastern, London and the West Midlands
The three areas where objectors are least active are Wales, East Midlands and the North West
Private and social residential remain the two most commonly opposed types of development (40% and 10% of all objections respectively)
The late baby boomers (45-54 years old), C2s and those living in rural areas fight private residential the most
Protection of green space and traffic remain the two most common reasons for active opposition
Overall, 23% of objections can be linked back to classic NIMBY concern of negative impact on objectors own property

The level of support for planning applications remains static at 7% in contrast to the increasing opposition

Private and social residential remain the most often supported type of planning application by local people
Interestingly, the incidence of support for private residential development is sliding down fast (2008 – 27%, 2007 – 35%, 2006 – 40%)
Private residential has dropped down the list of most desired development; in 2007 it was the most desired, this year it’s third behind youth facilities and social residential
Social housing remains the second most desired for the second year running

The NIMBY approval rating

Once again school development is regarded most positively followed by private and social residential
Slipping down the positive scale and hovering just above the drop zone to negative are convenience food stores at 4%, down from 13% last year
Supermarkets, from a poor start, have plummeted down the rating from -20% to -26%, driven in part perhaps by the negative publicity surrounding the Competition Commission inquiry and the endless diet of critical stories from campaigns against new stores and extensions
As per last year, the most hated form of development are casinos coming in at a heroic -80%

Schools + 58% (59% in 2007)
Private housing + 29% (36% in 2007)
Social housing + 23% (26% in 2007)
Convenience food stores + 4% (13% in 2007)
Roads + 2% (7% in 2007)
Supermarkets - 26% (-20% in 2007)
Offices - 30% (-25% in 2007)
Industria - 53% (-51 % in 2007)
Quarries - 61% (unchanged in 2007)
Power stations - 62% (-61% in 2007)
Landfill - 68% (-65% in 2007)
Casinos - 80% (-74% in 2007)

News for central government

Government house building targets seen as unrealistic

Overall, 68% of the British public don’t believe the Government can deliver the proposed 3 million homes by 2020

But generally the most traditional Labour voting C2s, Ds and Es believe it the most; Liberal Democrats believe it the least
The most sceptical age group are the 55-64s
Interestingly, there is no significant difference in scepticism between those living in urban, suburban and rural areas

Eco-towns – a panacea for unrealistic Government targets?

Despite home building on this scale and to such a high eco-standard never having been achieved before, 66% of the public agree with the eco-town concept

This result may be because people assume that an eco-town will be well away from their own area
However, those living in Eastern England (think – M11/Cambridge growth area) are very significantly more opposed to eco-towns than any other region
Interestingly, the stats on this issue are very similar to those in a question posed in last year’s survey when a similarly sized majority said they would be willing to pay more for a zero carbon home

News for local government

Public confidence in councils’ performance on planning is decreasing

This year, 65% of the British public rate their council’s performance as fair to poor (2007 – 62%, 2006 – 59%)

Once again, the late baby boomers are up there as some of the least satisfied with local government
Conservative voters tend to be more satisfied than Labour or Liberal Democrat voters
The three least satisfied areas are Wales, Scotland and the East Midlands whilst the three most satisfied are North West, North East and London

Should the planning process be stricter?

Nearly a third of the public think that the planning process is not strict enough

This sceptical attitude is hardening year on year (2008 – 32%, 2007 – 28%, 2006 – 24%)
This measurable change is coming from those who previously thought the system was about right or were uncommitted on the subject (past years)
By comparison, more people living in the North East believe that the planning process is unfair than elsewhere

Issues for the development industry

Planning gain

The development industry spends in excess of £2 billion each year on planning gain but get almost no kudos for this investment

69% of people cannot identify any planning gain from any development in their local area in recent years; those that try, are very confused

Public consultation

Put simply, the current approach to public consultation on development projects is fundamentally flawed

62% of the public cannot recall any public consultation on any development in their area despite perhaps one of the greatest periods of building and development in recent history, and when more public consultation is being carried out by the development industry than ever before
Of those that can recall some consultation, 75% are not aware it had any effect on the final scheme at all

Impact of development

The usual developer assertion that any development impact won’t be as bad as people think flies in the face of public opinion

57-8% of the public believe that development impact of past development in their area, whether they had opposed it or supported it, had exactly the impact they had expected, whether negative or positive

Developers finally get a good rap?

The percentage of people believing that developers and councils have too cosy a relationship has dropped sharply

Last year, nearly 60% believed this. This year less than 50% do
Most sceptical are those aged 18-24, Conservative voters and the Welsh
Least sceptical are those aged 35-44 and those from the North East

Specific business sector issues

Residential

As for the last three years, there is still considerable support for residential development but this is declining fast; more active campaigning is carried out by the general public in favour of residential than any other type of development
That said, residential is still the most actively campaigned against form of development
Both these results must be read partly in the context that residential is the most common type of planning application submitted and often most immediately impacts existing residential areas

Grocery

Convenience food stores have slipped notably in popularity from a 13% positive score on last year’s NIMBY Approval Rating to just positive at 4%
Supermarkets, already unpopular in development terms, have also slipped badly in the Rating sliding from a score of -20% to -26%
Support - Asda once again is the grocer which is most likely to be supported in the planning process by the general public. Sainsbury’s has increased its support considerably and Tesco trail in last place
Opposition – Tesco comes bottom in the opposition stakes, as people are more likely to oppose a Tesco than any other grocery store. Waitrose comes second for a second year running
Although all the grocers increased their public support, overall Sainsbury’s has performed best with the largest net increase in support

Offices

Offices continue as the unpopular enigma of the survey, with a -30% score on the NIMBY Approval Rating. This has changed from last year’s score of -25%

Casinos

Casinos remain the most unpopular type of development overall
Last year’s heroic score of -74% worsened this year to -80%, still even worse than landfill
Perhaps some of this negativity can still be ascribed to recent memory of lurid media headlines on the Government’s botched casino liberalisation policy

Waste

The British public are firmly convinced of the merits of recycling

68% believe that recycling is the best waste disposal method against 16% for bio-processing, 12% thermal treatment and just 2% for landfill
Those in the 25-34 age group are most ardently supportive; the laggards are those over 55 as well as Ds and Es
Tories are least supportive of recycling, but only by a small margin
Most pro recycling are Wales, the East Midlands and the North East and least pro are Yorkshire/Humber, West Midlands and Scotland

Aggregates

Quarries are still one of the top four most disliked forms of development
The public has no concept of how much aggregate is needed to build a house, with an even spread of perhaps ‘wild guesses’ across any options offered in the survey
Interestingly, over 40% of people assume that aggregate material travels for less than 25 miles from quarry to building site by lorry or have no idea how far it travels
All this underlines a desperate need for enlarging the quarrying industry’s ‘Making the Link’ campaign, which is trying to get people to understand how much society is reliant on the aggregates industry