‘Just bonkers’ Plans for 800 extra homes per year attacked
Leigh BOOBYER
leigh.boobyer@reachplc.com
GOVERNMENT plans to build nearly 800 extra homes a year in the Cotswolds have been branded “bonkers” by the leader of the district council.
Cotswolds District Council leader, Joe Harris said areas outside the district’s Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty status, such as Cirencester and Moreton-in-marsh, would take the brunt of the rising housebuilding targets due to restrictive planning policy.
The Government wants to accelerate housebuilding and published details of algorithm in August which produces new targets for every area.
Under the proposal for the Cotswolds, its housing requirement to build 420 homes a year would increase to 1,200 a year.
Mr Harris described the prospect of hundreds more homes being built than targeted as “undeliverable”.
Analysis by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) warned the changes could lead to the “worst of all possible worlds” for England’s countryside, with rural areas such as the Cotswolds taking the hit.
The proposals would change the way all authorities plan for new development and determine planning applications, and the Government’s consultation with all local authorities on the matter ends later this month.
One proposal could see fewer affordable homes built by developers as part of a quota would effectively be removed - something Mr Harris said is “really regressive”.
The Liberal Democrat leader said: “They are staggering numbers. And the thing is they are not deliverable.
“The fundamental point is that 80 per cent of the Cotswolds is Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which as we know is harder to build on anyway.
“What does that mean? The bulk of the development will be sandwiched into the other 20 per cent.
“That’s the area outside of Cirencester, the town itself and Moreton-inmarsh. Moreton has had loads of development over the last 10 years, many people feel annoyed that the infrastructure has not come with that.
“We are really desperate as a council to deliver genuine affordably houses.
“We are absolutely committed to doing that, and the problem with the Government’s proposal is that actually they remove some of the quota for affordable housing in future developments. That is really regressive.
“This Government seems to do everything via an algorithm. It is bonkers.”
The Conservative opposition leader of the district council, Richard Morgan, also criticised his party’s proposals.
He said: “Whilst it’s admirable that the Conservative government is trying to build more homes and help more young people achieve their aspiration of home ownership, this particular consultation would have a dramatic and detrimental effect on the Cotswolds.
“If the law is changed we could see thousands of extra houses built in and around our towns which are still adapt ingto the last wave of housebuilding.
“The Conservative group will continue to work alongside our district and county council colleagues and our member of parliament and urge the government to think again.”
Crispin Truman, chief executive of CPRE, said in a statement: “We are in the midst of a housing crisis and need to deliver many more well designed, genuinely affordable homes in the right places, including in rural areas.
“But our analysis has shown the government’s untested changes to local planning could lead to the worst of all possible worlds - gobbling up our countryside without delivering the affordable homes our rural communities are crying out for.”