Changes to the planning system are needed to prevent the council from being ‘at the mercy’ of property developers, according to Wokingham’s leader. 

Cllr Clive Jones is looking to reduce the annual new housing target set by central government, which is currently 781 per year for Wokingham.   

The council hopes to reduce the number to below 600 a year, with 40,000 homes having been built in the borough over the last four decades. 

Cllr Jones suggests the biggest problem with the current policy is the targets “don’t take into account any previous over delivery”. 

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He said: “Over the last five years, this council has overdelivered by 3,000 houses. We should be able to take that 3,000 off the Local Plan. 

“It doesn’t make any sense. Those who have delivered or overdelivered just get more thrust on them by the next Local Plan. We are at the mercy of speculative developers.” 

A meeting was requested with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to discuss making changes to the planning targets back in June.   

On Tuesday (November 29), the private secretary for the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Lucy Frazer, wrote back and apologised for the “very delayed response”, which they said was caused by the number of recent ministerial changes meaning it had “taken a long time” for emails to get to the right people. 

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The reply said that, whilst Ms Frazer would not be able to visit the borough in person, she is interested in setting up a round table event “in the future”, which Cllr Jones would be invited to. 

Cllr Jones welcomed the invitation, suggesting the response appears to be an indication that “the government is preparing to change the existing system” but emphasised that it is so far “unclear” what plan would be put in place. 

“We have repeatedly argued that we cannot afford to lose more of our precious countryside, which forms a vital part of the character of this part of Berkshire.”   

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Wokingham’s population has gone up by 23,120, from 154,380 in 2011 to 177,500 in 2021, according to date from the Census 2021 – an increase of 15 per cent – which Cllr Jones believes is in part due to the housing provisions imposed on the borough by the government. 

He said: “If the housing minister takes seriously the government’s levelling-up agenda, then it makes great sense to seek to promote more development and investment in parts of the north crying out for it, and not concentrate new building in the already over-crowded southeast.   

“I will do all I can to make the most of the opportunity.”