The new Local Plan will come to council for approval on 19 September. The culmination of many years of work by the previous and current administration, it recommends the best way to accommodate the housing target given to us by government.
Some people will not like the consequences of some of the compromises in the plan, and I understand their concerns. However, as councillors we must consider the interests of the whole borough. One of the most important interests is met by having a new Local Plan, which will provide security against speculative development.
We have been in a vulnerable state since February 2022, when the council ceased to be able to demonstrate a five-year supply of land allocated for future development. This normally leads to a presumption in favour of development, allowing developers to gain approval for uncoordinated schemes with limited infrastructure. In Wokingham’s case, however, planning inspectors at appeals have recognized that the council over-delivered new housing in the past, and this tempered the presumption in favour of development.
But now the rules have changed. The new government has said that past over-delivery will no longer be considered a mitigation, exposing us to the full effect of not having a five-year land supply. For this reason alone, it is imperative that we bring our new Local Plan to completion with all possible speed.
But there is another, even more critical, reason to approve the new Plan on 19 September.
On 30 July, the new deputy prime minister proposed significant changes to the planning system, including a substantial increase in the housing target for Wokingham.
The government is consulting until the end of September on the proposed changes and will announce its final decision at the end of the year.
We have, however, a narrow window of opportunity to get approval of a plan based on the existing targets. This would give us time to plan properly for any future target which may be given to us. The government has said that councils like ours, which are at an advanced stage in the preparation of new Local Plans, can continue to work on the current numbers, so long as they can meet a stringent timetable for getting the plan to an inspector’s enquiry. We should be able to do that if the new Plan is approved by council on 19 September.
If we can meet the government’s timetable, we will have won several years’ breathing space to prepare in an orderly way for the larger numbers that we will probably be obliged to take in the future. And we will be able to carry out that work with a high level of protection against speculative development provided by having a new Local Plan in place.
To achieve this, the plan needs to be approved on 19 September, beyond which the opportunity we have will be lost.
Stephen Conway is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
