For some time, Conservatives in Wokingham Borough have been warning that the policies of Labour in Government and the Liberal Democrats locally would leave our area open to unchecked development.
Recently, a developer advertised new houses at Johnson Drive in Finchampstead before the planning application had even been considered. This offers a stark warning of what the future holds. Johnson Drive was not in the Liberal Democrats’ Local Plan or in the previous 2010 Plan.
Housebuilding companies feel empowered to spend money promoting their sites, confident their planning applications will eventually be approved. The Council’s Liberal Democrat-led administration has spent two-and-a-half years failing to properly get on with a Local Plan for future development.
Without a five-year land supply, the Council has previously warned that there would be an increase in appeals for speculative housing development, with inspectors more likely to side with the developer. Thanks to the Liberal Democrats, developers are in effect able to build unsuitable housing in unsustainable numbers in the wrong locations.
At the same time, after years spent dithering, the Liberal Democrats have finally produced their Local Plan. This still needs to be approved by a Planning Inspector. But the proposals to build 3,900 houses at Hall Farm are deeply flawed. Conservative councillors argued that other options should be looked at, in more sustainable numbers, but the Liberal Democrats with some Labour help forced through their draft Plan.
The Government’s policies are even more stark. From the beginning, Sir Keir Starmer has demonstrated that he wants to support developers over local people, going so far as to say that he wants to back “the builders not the blockers” – i.e. housing companies over residents.
The Labour Government has doubled Wokingham Borough’s housing targets that are centrally imposed by Whitehall. Your local Conservatives have been clear in opposing this number as being completely unsuitable for an area that has contributed its fair share of new houses in recent years. We were pleased when Liberal Democrat councillors supported my motion to start a cross-party campaign to write to the Government to make the case for a change in approach.
These houses are unlikely to make it easier for younger people to get on the property ladder. As we have seen over many years, locally house prices have only increased despite building more homes. This is in part because developers, once granted planning permission, can control the numbers of new houses coming onto the market.
If the Government thinks we need more houses in Wokingham Borough, rather than allow developers to store up ever more future sites to enhance their balance sheets, developers should be building the thousands of houses that have already been approved but not built.
In another blow, the Deputy Prime Minister has said that she wants unelected Council officers to be able to bypass councillors on planning committees in order to approve planning applications. This would mean that residents, concerned about a proposed development included in a Local Plan, would be unable to make representations to their councillors in the hopes of stopping or modifying an application.
If the Conservatives were in charge of the Council, we would take the fight to the Government on housing numbers and proposals to take away councillor decision-making. We would also ensure that plans for future development are sustainable, with housing in the right numbers in the right locations. Unlike the other parties, the Conservatives will back you, not the developers.
Charles Margetts is deputy leader of the Conservative Group at Wokingham Borough Council.
