Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) is ‘working to understand’ a new Labour government housing target of 560 extra homes for the borough - on top of the already targeted 748 new builds needed per year.

 

An announcement from the government last week means that Wokingham will have to deliver hundreds more houses per year than expected. This is part of the new Labour government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes across England in the next five years.

Housing target changes come as the local authority is set to publish its draft local plan – a key document outlining sites for proposed developments – in September.

Wokingham Borough Council leader Stephen Conway, who is also the executive member for housing, told the News: “This is the start of a consultation, so these figures aren’t set in stone.”

He explained that as the council is reaching the final stages of publishing the draft local plan, he said that it is possible that targets won’t have to change for the next few years.

Otherwise, Wokingham Borough Council would have to start from scratch, delaying the process of publishing the plan even further.

The leader added that this means that the ‘most likely outcome is that we will be allowed to proceed on the basis of our current figures, plus possible adjustments’. Cllr Conway suggested that these may take place 18 months from now.

In his most recent column for the News, Cllr Conway explained: “The council will point out to the new government, as we did to the last, that our area has experienced large-scale housing development over the last decade, yet prices have risen relentlessly.”

The government will be consulting over the next two months over the proposed changes, and will not announce the final decision until the end of the year.

Cllr Conway has said he has written to Angela Rayner regarding the ‘constraints on delivery on the scale the government wishes’. He said that there is ‘nowhere near enough previously developed land in the borough to accommodate the housing required’, resulting in more reliance on open countryside.

Delivery of the draft local plan has been a key issue facing WBC, as well as a constant point of contention between the Liberal-Democrat run executive and the Conservatives in opposition.

Cllr Conway has urged members to come together and approve the plan, which is set to be debated at the next full council meeting on September 19. He said: “The risks involved in delay, whether for political or other reasons, have become significantly greater.”