Homes are more than bricks and mortar

RBWM is currently putting together a draft housing strategy, which will be going to public consultation in the near future.

The strategy will look at the crucial question of ‘WHY’ we need new homes, not just ‘WHERE’.

The debate around housing can often focus too much on targets and site locations, and loses focus on why building homes is important to creating a thriving local economy and community.

The Local Plan is currently going through its second examination and for those of us who want to stop speculative developments – like the one at Ridgeway in Cox Green – we hope that the Local Plan can be concluded.

With this element of the housing debate hopefully being settled in the not-too-distant future we can start to think about what we want our housing market to be like.

Delivering new homes is about much more than hitting housing targets and a home is much more than an investment of bricks and mor tar.

As policy makers, we cannot see homes simply as financial assets but as the building blocks of a strong society.

The huge success of our borough has seen an influx of talented individuals, young families, entrepreneurs, and people seeking a slice of the good life.

However, as ever, this success has not been without some losers and no doubt some younger people, vulnerable residents, and lifelong residents who have fallen on hard times may feel that they have not benefited from the economic growth and success of our borough.

These are not people who have moved to an area they cannot afford, but local people, who feel they are shut out from taking a stake in their own community.

We do not want to be a borough where children of life-long residents feel they need to leave to get a place of their own; we do not want to be a borough that does not have sufficient social housing to give our rough sleepers a second chance; we do not want to be a borough where life-long residents are forced to move away because they can no longer afford to rent.

We want to be a borough that delivers new homes not only for those coming into the borough, but for those who are already here.

We want a housing market that proactively supports a wide range of residents through a mixture of different homes with a mixture of affordability.

We have started the drafting process by holding initial consultation events with councillors, parish councils and our partner organisations, such as homeless charities and housing associations.

From here the draft will go to cabinet to approve it for public consultation; feedback from the consultation will be analysed before the final housing strategy goes to Cabinet next year for adoption.

I hope this will start a really important debate in RBWM that is focused on why we need new homes, not simply how many and where.

These latter points will hopefully be concluded through the Local Plan process shor tly.

There will be plenty of opportunity for all residents and groups to feed in, but I hope this has helpfully set out our ambitions for the strategy and the borough we want to build together.

Cllr ROSS McWILLIAMS Royal Borough lead member for housing, communications and youth engagement