‘Handbrake turn on new housing’
Borough/ Slough: Council leaders feud after report
The leaders of the neighbouring Slough and Royal Borough councils have clashed over a ‘bombshell’ report on soaring demand for housing in Berkshire.
The Advertiser reported last week on a study carried out by planning consultants Stantec which predicted a shortfall of 13,500 homes across both local authorities, and South Buckinghamshire, by 2039.
The report included suggestions to solve the demand for homes such as Windsor and Maidenhead council relinquishing land in Paley Street to create a community of more than 10,000 homes for people unable to find a place to live in Slough.
An area of land east of the A308 in Holyport was also deemed as having capacity for 4,500 homes while land west of Long Lane in Cookham was identified for a potential 1,200 homes.
Councillor Andrew Johnson, the Conservative
leader of the Royal Borough, told the Advertiser he would have to be ‘dragged kicking and screaming’ if asked to provide land for Slough’s surging housing demand.
But Councillor James Swindlehurst, leader of the Labour-run Slough Borough Council, accused his Conservative counterpart of trying to apply a ‘desperate handbrake turn’ away from housing solutions for Berkshire.
He told the Advertiser: “Having spent two years preparing the Royal Borough’s local plan, Cllr Johnson is now performing a desperate handbrake turn away from both the plan and the housing solutions his own area and wider east Berkshire so desperately needs.
“The fact is that the Royal Borough’s supply problems stem in large part from his own administration’s past political decisions – or lack thereof – in relation to meeting housing need.”
He added that his Labourrun council had demonstrated a ‘strong record’ of providing homes for Slough residents, pointing to the ongoing development of more than 1,300 homes at the former Horlicks factory.
Cookham resident Paul Strzelecki, a long-standing campaigner against the Borough Local Plan, described the report as a ‘bombshell’ and said it raised worrying questions over the future of greenbelt land in Windsor and Maidenhead.
He said: “The study was a background to meet unmet need but it’s also a study for where you would build in the borough and it shows it’s going to be built in the greenbelt.”