By Cllr Lindsay Ferris
Since May 2022, the Liberal Democrat led Council has continued lobbying the Government on Housing numbers for the Borough.
In December last year, the Government issued a consultation on Planning issues, including proposals within a new draft National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) which allowed Councils to take account of over-provision in one local plan into a new local plan.
They also indicated that they would be issuing their proposals this spring – that has now passed.
This is an important requirement because here in Wokingham Borough, the number of homes that have been built within the current local Plan, exceeds the number that we were asked to build by some 1,727 properties (and potentially might be even more).
Should this facility be forthcoming, our new local plan could have a reduced number of homes equating to this number (1,727), and see this reduce from circa 12,000 homes down to circa 10,000 homes.
Also, very importantly, the Council would be able to recover its Five Year land supply.
The reason we have lost our Five Year and supply is because too many homes have been built by developers and this has used up more of the allocated housing supply in the Borough as a result.
Wokingham appears to be one of only a handful of Council’s who have more than achieved their housing targets. If the Government does not allow for over-provision of homes, it would have the effect of penalising the residents of this Borough, when other parts of the Country have not built anywhere near enough homes in their own area.
Last month, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up issued a statement on this topic.
His comments were more top level, with little detail, other than a preference to support Green Belt, as to how he intended to progress.
He did however indicate that an updated statement and NPPF should be available this Autumn.
It is on this basis that at last week’s Executive Meeting (June 29), I was able to indicate that the Council will be moving forward on the new Local Plan. (The full details were provided at the 29th June Executive Meeting).
However, the next most important stage of the Local Plan is called the “Proposed Submission of Plan for Publication”. Also known as REG 19.
This is proposed for November later this year. This will be when an updated list of sites would be issued for consultation with residents and other bodies over the period November 2023 until circa March – June 2024.
During this summer there will be a number of cross-party Councillor Working Group meetings to discuss various important topics. This includes such issues as Local Housing Need, Types of homes to be provided including one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes and bungalows to allow older residents to move out of their homes and be able to stay in this area, Social Housing need, Flood resilience, Viability assessments, Climate Change, Transport requirements, Land Assessments and Sustainability.
These are all important topics that need to be included in the production of the New Local Plan.
It is vital that we have as an up to date and forward-thinking view on these issues to take the Local Plan through to 2039/2040.
I intend to provide a regular update on these and other issues on the Local Plan production over the coming months.
Cllr Lindsay Ferris is the executive member for planning and the local plan on Wokingham Borough Council and ward member for Twyford
