‘Too many homes built on green belt’
COUNCILLOR SAYS HOUSING TARGETS ARE OUT OF DATE
GREEN belt in Huddersfield will continue to be sacrificed to build unnecessary houses because government guidelines mean councils are sticking to out-of-date figures on housing targets.
That’s the view of Lib Dem councillor Alison Munro, who is pushing back against more than 1,000 new homes earmarked for multiple plots of land at Lepton and Fenay Bridge.
She believes Kirklees Council’s Local Plan is fundamentally flawed as it is based on Office of National Statistics (ONS) data from 2014.
The council said it was following government guidelines by relying on the figures.
Clr Munro, who represents Almondbury ward, challenged council planners to justify the need to build more than 31,000 homes across the borough when there had been ‘a lack of progress’ by the government in revealing any legislation to back up data on housing numbers.
That prompted a response from senior Labour councillor Peter McBride, who said the government still requires councils such as Kirklees to base their local plan housing requirements on the ONS figures from eight years ago.
He said: “Therefore this council is simply following the rules for assessing housing need that the government requires councils to use.
“The council’s Local Plan is up to date and delivering on the housing need, which the government’s appointed planning inspector agreed was the appropriate requirements for Kirklees.
“Until the government changes the planning rules our Local Plan is the best way we have of delivering housing and protecting our important green belt and landscapes from unplanned developments.”
Clr Munro has previously argued that not all of the 31,000 homes are needed.
Last year she said ‘exaggerated’ figures showed projected growth by 47,800 people and 27,300 households in Kirklees.
She argued that actual population growth has been much slower than predicted up to now, and objectively only about 900 new homes each year are needed – a whopping 16,600 less in 2031 than the Local Plan target of 1,730 per year. Reacting to Clr McBride’s statement she said: “The council is claiming that it has to follow the government’s rules. But it’s actually guidance. They don’t have to follow it.”
She also highlighted a proposed government white paper on planning reforms that she said had been ‘kicked into the long grass’ by Housing Secretary Michael Gove due to the “widespread unpopularity’ of the proposals. She added: “That ties local authorities to the 2014 ONS figures, which means we are having too many houses built [in Kirklees].”
With her party colleague Clr Andrew Marchington (Golcar) she has submitted a motion asking council leader Shabir Pandor to write to housing minister Stuart Andrew to provide clarity on the government’s intentions to reform the planning system and to revise reliance on the 2014 ONS data “to better reflect current population growth”.
That motion is unlikely to be heard before June’s meeting of full council.