By Clive Jones
I am very pleased that I am to be invited to a round table discussion with the Housing Minister Lucy Frazer MP in an attempt to get housing numbers down in Wokingham.
I have written to four Secretaries of State for Levelling, Housing and Communities since I became Leader of the Council in May.
The revolving door of Ministers and Prime Ministers in the last six months has not been helpful to our campaign to get numbers down.
The big difference is this time and for the first time ever the Leader of the Borough council is getting to meet with the Minister to take part in discussions to reduce housing numbers here. This hasn’t happened here before.
The government has announced that they are wanting to consider scrapping housing targets for local councils. Wokingham currently has to build 781 houses each year.
Scrapping targets does not mean that no houses will be built in Wokingham or that planning permissions will not be given.
We have several thousand outstanding planning permissions which haven’t yet been built, so developers will continue to build these.
But its good news that compulsory housing targets are being reconsidered.
I will be asking the Housing Minister to give councils more control on the types of housing that can be built in the borough. Liberal Democrats want more genuinely affordable housing.
We want more one-, two- and three-bed properties and bungalows. I will also be asking the Minister to help local councils to build more council houses.
Developers have built 40,000 houses here in Wokingham during the last 40 years, we have done more than our fair share of development.
The bill is unlikely to be finalised for several months so we cant be certain that the housing targets will be actually scrapped.
Lots could happen between now and then. We could easily have another three or four Secretaries of state and Prime Ministers before the bill passes through parliament.
But as I said I am hopeful that we can make some progress, we have taken the first steps to reducing Wokingham’s housing numbers forced on us by the Conservatives.
Cllr Clive Jones is the leader of Wokingham Borough Council
