Agenda item

Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey asked the Executive Member for Planning and Enforcement the following question:

Minutes:

 

Question

What is the backup plan (plan b?) for yearly housing delivery quota if there is a housing slowdown/recession (like 2007/8) or any delay in the yearly delivery of housing in Grazeley?

 

Answer

In order to specifically address the risk of slowdown or recession we are considering, and I am going into it again, such delivery models like a Locally Led New Town Development Corporation which would fit the garden town proposal.  As I have said earlier the Development Corporation is a model that offers potential to put control and speed of delivery in the hands of the Councils and enhances it through land supply and I have said this previously so you have heard me twice already. 

 

Other factors and actions also reduce the risk.  We currently have a healthy bank of land with planning permission for homes, as a result of our existing Core Strategy and part of our Local Plan.  We know that these permissions will continue to deliver over the coming years.

 

A successful outcome of the bid to the Housing Infrastructure Fund will accelerate delivery of the garden town at Grazeley by supporting the upfront infrastructure, removing the key costs and opening up the site early.

 

The recommended strategy also includes a range and size of other types of sites, and reasonable flexibility in supply, all helping to maintain a healthy supply across the Borough.  As an organisation we can also use our ownership of land to influence other developments that come along.

 

Supplementary Question

In the past we have been forced to have a larger quota because we were not delivering the number of houses we were supposed to deliver during that time and they are not selling them as is happening in North Wokingham, what is happening in Hatch Farm, what is happening all over the Borough.  What are we going to do because at this point Grazeley is not going to come on line for a while and we are expecting all of the houses to come from the existing SDLs and they are not selling them and they are not going to do that so we are going to increase our quota?  Where are you going to put the extra 100 houses or something like we got in the last round?

 

Supplementary Answer

It is a very good point and you know we have discussed this on many occasions.  I think what you have got to look at is if Grazeley, through the consultation, gets the go ahead infrastructure will start very early and you will potentially have buildings start in 2024.  You are absolutely right we have got a gap between now and 2024 to ensure that these other areas are delivering and that is why our own housing corporate companies, which John will support me on, can actually help deliver those and step in on those areas where we can either develop with the developer or do a joint relationship where we can accelerate the housing.

 

The good thing about Grazeley, and I know everybody will not sing from the same hymn sheet, is 5,000 plus of those houses will be affordable and if we go down the route of a housing corporation we are in control not the developers.

 

The problem we have got with our SDLs at the moment, apart from, and John knows far more about Arborfield than I do, is Arborfield seems to be working because they have got this commitment to the MOD whereas at other sites, as you quite rightly say, the developers will sell when it is right for them to sell and that is why we have got to look at other models for Grazeley to try and even out the ups and downs.

 

But you must also look at Wokingham as an area.  I know that there are these statements out there that some are selling and some are not selling.  They are selling far better in Wokingham than they are across the whole of the rest of the country if you just look at the sales.  Last year we did 1,250, the year before we did 1,565.  The reason why this housing is coming late is because the SDL approach was backended; it was never designed to deliver in the early stages it was like the old hockey stick of setting up a new business and they will develop and grow as we go along.  But you are right the next few years we have got to make sure they continue to deliver because if Grazeley does go ahead we have got to bridge that gap.

 

The Leader of Council provided the following response:

I would just add that the current Plan is a Plan from 2019-2036.  Of the 13,000 houses presumed there only 3,000 are due to come from Grazeley; the other 10,000 are from other sites or the majority from the hangover of the current Core Strategy.  So the current Plan that we are looking at in the consultation is not talking about 10,000 or 15,000 houses from Grazeley; we are talking about 3,000.