Council invites new Secretary of State for meeting on huge housing target challenge, as scale of potential development is revealed
Cotswold District Council has renewed its call for the government to reconsider housing targets for the district - and invited the new Secretary of State to visit the Cotswolds to see the challenges first-hand.
As the scale of potential development is laid bare ahead of a consultation next month, council leader Mike Evemy has written to Steve Reed MP, the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
It follows an earlier appeal made in July to Angela Rayner, his predecessor, in which Cllr Evemy highlighted the exceptional constraints facing the district and called for a rethink on targets.
It comes after the council set out development options to meet the government’s housing targets, which have more than doubled in the Cotswold district, to 1,036 new homes per year. Residents will be asked to share their views on the options during a consultation starting on November 5.
Cllr Evemy said: “The response to our first letter from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said that every authority needs to play its part in delivering new homes, housing targets had been set based on affordability in each area, and that the council was doing the right thing in updating its Local Plan.
“Like the algorithm the government has used to calculate housing targets, that response failed to address the critical point around genuine development constraint.
“The Cotswold district is among the most challenged local planning authorities in the country when it comes to identifying appropriate and sustainable sites for large-scale development, particularly outside of those areas with National Park Authority designations. Up to now, this fact has been ignored by the government.”
With personnel changes at the top of the department and the emerging evidence published by the council as part of the Local Plan update, Cllr Evemy hopes the government will reconsider its position and reduce the district’s target.
He continued: “There are two big issues here: one is the potential for developers to capitalise on the fact new housing targets weaken the council’s ability to refuse development that doesn’t bring with it the necessary supporting infrastructure.
“And the second is the enormous number of homes we’re expected to plan for, in small and concentrated parts of the district. Asking a local authority which has 80 per cent of its land within the strictly protected National Landscape – along with other significant infrastructure constraints – to plan for almost 19,000 new homes over the next 18 years is, by any measure, totally unrealistic.
“We have been asked to update our Local Plan and that is what we’re doing. The indicative numbers we’ve published for new homes across the district, which are based on evidence currently available to us as we work through the Local Plan process, are eyewatering and set out the scale of the challenge. Our communities are, rightly, very concerned.”
The consultation document, considered by the council’s cabinet last week, outlines several development strategies. The preferred option at this stage would see the council plan for 14,660 new homes, including new settlements and strategic extensions outside of the National Landscape, but produce a total still considerably short of the government’s target.
The letter to Steve Reed also highlights the impact of infrastructure constraints, citing the example of a 13-home affordable housing scheme in the village of Down Ampney. Those homes cannot be occupied until Thames Water upgrades local sewage infrastructure, with no clear timeline for completion.
Leaders from across the council have co-signed the letter. Leader of the Opposition Cllr Tom Stowe (Conservative), Cllr Clare Turner (Green), Cllr Nikki Ind (Independent), along with Cllr Evemy (Liberal Democrats), represent all 34 members of the council. They are united in calls for the government to work with the council to find a more realistic and locally responsive approach to housing delivery.
Cllr Stowe said: “The government has put us in an impossible position. It’s doubled the housing target, which means over a thousand homes a year, in a district where most of the land is protected and infrastructure is already stretched.
“The recent local plan report and options appraisal show what this looks like in practice as the council is forced to shoehorn these massive housing numbers into small pockets of the district. Villages and towns across the district are going to be heavily impacted.”
“Now is the time for government to listen to our concerns, review the evidence and adopt a more collaborative approach that reflects the reality on the ground – I fully support the council in its approach to this matter.”
Cllr Evemy added: “We support new housing; the right homes in the right places, genuinely affordable, and delivered in a plan-led way with community participation and appropriate infrastructure.
“But the scale of the target does not reflect the constraints we face. We need government to work with us, not against us – and I hope that under Mr Reed’s leadership, MHCLG will be open to better understanding the issues here and reconsidering the targets.”