Question
I participated in a workshop recently which looked at building over 4500 houses, 3 schools, community centres, new roads etc at Hall Farm stretching to and including parts of Winnersh.
When asked a senior officer at the workshop suggested that the evolving local plan was to provide 700 to 750 houses a year until 2036 but in the local Wokingham Paper you are quoted as stating the number each year would be in the region of 14,000 plus a year to 2036.
Was the 700 to 750 the housing number the Council would like to put in the Hall Farm Arborfield to Winnersh and the 14,000 plus the number for the Borough as a whole?
Can the Leader of the Council update me on the actual or approximate housing numbers the Council are planning for the Borough in the evolving housing plan to 2036?
Minutes:
Question
I participated in a workshop recently which looked at building over 4,500 houses, 3 schools, community centres, new roads etc at Hall Farm stretching to and including parts of Winnersh.
When asked a senior Officer at the workshop suggested that the evolving local plan was to provide 700 to 750 houses a year until 2036 but in the local Wokingham Paper you are quoted as stating the number each year would be in the region of 14,000 plus a year to 2036.
Was the 700 to 750 the housing number the Council would like to put in the Hall Farm Arborfield to Winnersh and the 14,000 plus the number for the Borough as a whole?
Can the Leader of the Council update me on the actual or approximate housing numbers the Council are planning for the Borough in the evolving housing plan to 2036?
First of all I would just like to point out Gary that I cannot be responsible for what is printed in the press.
As the mastermind behind the current plan, you are well aware what the paradigms around a local plan process are. Indeed, you were the Executive Member to whom could be attributed the four SDLs and all the development for the last decade. I can therefore assume that you are familiar with the process.
You are also correct in describing the local plan as evolving.
Government policy requires all local authorities to set out plans to deliver new housing, and Wokingham Borough Council is no different. This is a central issue to be grappled with through the new local plan.
Unfortunately, due to the change in the emergency planning arrangements around AWE Burghfield we are no longer able to rely on providing for most of the new housing need through the creation of the Grazeley garden town, as proposed in the Draft Local Plan consultation last year, and we are having to review alternative possible approaches. The meeting you attended is part of an evidence gathering exercise, considering how development might be managed on a strategic scale, should this approach be taken. Information on this process is available on our website.
I should stress at this juncture that no decisions have been made as to what the alternative approach will be recommended for consultations and all options remain on the table.
Returning to your question, the figures you quote are confusing the amount of housing the Government requires to be built each year within Wokingham Borough with the amount of housing that needs to be managed by the local plan over its entire period.
You will recall that last year the Government White Paper proposals were that Wokingham Borough would have to provide in excess of 1,600 per annum, which with buffers would have been around 2,000 per annum. You were sceptical that this would and could be eased. But a Conservative administration is capable of having a dialogue with a Conservative Government and I can say without fear of contradiction that the policy was abandoned because of our opposition. At the time it was said that I was notorious in Whitehall.
The applicable Government policy calculates the amount of housing a local authority needs to enable through a standard method. For Wokingham Borough, the standard method currently calculates the housing need as 768 dwellings per year. This figure is recalculated each year as you know but it has generally been in the range of 760-820 dwellings.
You may recall that when you were Lead Member for Planning at the time the 2010 Local Plan was accepted with a figure of 623 new homes per year.
The Draft Local Plan we consulted on last year covered the period 2018 to 2035/36, an 18-year period. 768 dwellings per year for 18 years is just under 14,000 dwellings. There is no requirement to provide 14,000 dwellings each year.
For completeness, much of the required 14,000 dwellings will be met from sites which already have planning permission. For example 9,000 dwellings have already been completed, are under construction or have planning permission as part of the four Strategic Development Locations defined by your adopted Core Strategy local plan In 2010, on which you were instrumental.
I am in discussions with MHCLG to ameliorate the requirement by seeking clarification on exceptional circumstances and the five year land supply.
Consultation on the new local plan is anticipated in the autumn.
Supplementary Question
I was looking at the Wokingham Borough Council Managing Development Local Plan Document, which was adopted in February 2014 and was signed off by the then Executive Member for Planning, which was Councillor Keith Baker. Looking at Appendix 14 it makes reference to South Wokingham SDL and the requirement to build 2,490 houses by 2026, which is the end of the Plan. I think the same line would apply to all four SDLs. I attended a planning meeting briefing on South Wokingham and its evolution fairly recently and in that the developers and Officers said that once planning permission had been granted for the remainder of the work it would take at least 10 years to complete the project. If all of those houses are supposed to be built by 2026, 10 years on takes it up into 2030, 31, 32 and this really will apply, I would think, to all the SDLs.
So my concern is, and the question is, if you lump the incomplete houses in the existing Local Plan will they be added to the numbers that you will be agreeing in the new Local Plan and so whatever the number will be it will be plus all of the incomplete ones in the existing Local Plan?
Supplementary Answer
I think you are assuming parts of the evolving Local Plan which are yet to evolve and I think you will have to wait for that position unless Wayne can provide anything further.
Councillor Wayne Smith provided the following response:
I think you are right Gary. I think the issue we have had in South Wokingham is the delay in getting the scheme off the ground. So, I think you are right but it will not be in addition to, they will be negative numbers off the overall plan.