By Cllr Clive Jones
Ever since the new administration was formed at Wokingham Borough Council in May, we have been lobbying government for a reduction in the number of new homes that the borough is obliged to take by central government.
We began within days of taking control of the council, with meetings with the MPs covering the borough to ask for their support. As I reported at the time, the MPs were all happy to help and I want to thank them for working with us on this important matter.
We have followed up with detailed letters to successive secretaries of state responsible for housing, and had a meeting with Michael Gove promised before he was sacked by Boris Johnson. Mr Gove is now back in office, and we are meeting his housing minister soon.
We recognise that the borough must take some new housing to cater for local need.
Social rental housing is particularly required to enable those priced out of the market to have decent homes.
But building more market homes is not the answer to the shortage of genuinely affordable property; despite all the house-building in the borough over the last 30 years, house prices have risen not fallen. We want a higher percentage of new homes to be in the genuinely affordable category, which in our area means primarily social rental.
But if we want to increase the proportion of affordable homes in the local housing mix, we want to persuade the government that our area cannot take the level of development it is imposing on us.
We have consistently argued that Wokingham has over-delivered in the past and that this over-delivery should be taken into account in setting new targets.
We have consistently maintained that the scale of new housing imposed on Wokingham is harming the character of a semi-rural area, narrowing gaps between settlements.
We have consistently said that the pressure on our creaking infrastructure is already too great; our roads are already congested; our schools at capacity; and our doctors’ surgeries struggling to cope with the existing number of patients.
We have also made the case repeatedly that, if the government is serious about its levelling-up agenda, investment in new homes should be directed to the north and Midlands – to areas crying out for more homes – not to the already over-heated south east.
At last, it seems that the government is beginning to listen.
Mr Gove has issued statements suggesting that he accepts that the current system is flawed and needs to be changed. He seems to recognise that over-delivery in the past should be taken into account; he seems to realise that mandatory housing targets, calculated on the basis of past delivery, unfairly penalise areas such as our own.
But there are two reasons for caution.
First, we need to see the detail of what the government is proposing. We have been promised a ‘prospectus’ before Christmas; we will need to see what that actually offers.
Second, the government is proposing to consult on its new proposals.
That will give the development industry the opportunity to push back and water down the changes; it will also mean that any new system takes some time to be introduced.
We are therefore in a very uncertain position.
We know the system is likely to be changing, but we don’t know by how much and when.
Meanwhile, we have to continue our lobbying to make sure that the government appreciates the particular pressures we face here in Wokingham Borough.
So, two cheers for Mr Gove’s announcements, but not yet three.
Cllr Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
