ONE of the borough’s MPs is calling for the “imbalance” between housebuilders and residents to be addressed.
Matt Rodda, whose Reading East constituency includes Woodley, spoke in the House of Commons last month about the Loddon Park development, off Mohawk Way.
Speaking on Monday, January 24, he said: “When the whole development was given planning permission, the local authority—mistakenly, I believe—allowed the site developer to charge upkeep for those common areas in perpetuity.
“There is no limit, as I understand it, to the charge that can be made.
“It is deeply unfair for normal householders—many of them have young families, are commuters who work locally and are facing, like many people across the country, significant rises in the cost of living—to face in addition ongoing costs for maintaining the landscape around their homes. Frankly, that is wrong.”
Mr Rodda was speaking in support of a new clause to the Leasehold Reform Bill.
Proposed by Sir Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, the clause said: “Within 30 days of the day on which this Act comes into force, the Secretary of State must publish draft legislation to restrict ground rents on all existing long residential leases to a peppercorn.”
The new clause aims to ensure that the Government introduces further legislation to remove ground rent for all leaseholders, whereas the Act currently only applies to newly established leases.
During the debate, Mr Rodda said that there is an “enormous imbalance between powerful developers … and people buying a property for themselves, who possibly do not have all the information before them that ideally they should.”
He said that there was a clear need for action at Loddon Park, where hundreds of residents are paying for the land’s upkeep.
Speaking to Wokingham Today, Mr Rodda said that households are “getting a raw deal” and said that the charges were not fair.
Cllr Wayne Smith, executive member for planning and enforcement at the borough council, said that no mistakes were made in the planning approval.
He said: “Mr Rodda MP is incorrect in asserting that we ‘allowed’ the developer to charge upkeep for common areas at this site, or indeed that any error was made during the planning process.
“In deciding planning applications and imposing or enforcing conditions, our responsibility is to ensure that the developer provides the correct amount and standard of open space, as they did in this instance.
“They aren’t required to hand the site over to us for adoption and can instead arrange for it to be managed by private agreement between residents and the landowner or a management company, which is a common and entirely lawful practice.
“As such, this is a civil dispute between those parties. Its resolution would depend on the terms of their agreement, in which we have no involvement.”
