Government demands that 12,000 new homes be built in Nuneaton and Bedworth in 15 years led to ‘we are maxed out’ pleas.
CoventryLive previously reported the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the borough’s target for new homes to be built each year will be 737 – way above the initial target of 421.
This would be a total of 12,000 over 15 years and the government has told the Town Hall it has 30 months to come up with a plan of where they should be built
This comes just months after the latest version of the Borough Plan was just adopted and could cost a whopping quarter of a million pounds.
To complete the new plan in 30 months is ‘impossible’ said Green councillor Keith Kondakor.
“The new local plan has to be delivered in 30 months, the last one took bout four years, the one before that, about 12 years,” he told a full council meeting.
“We are being asked to do something that is impossible
“The government is insisting that we have 12,000 houses over 15 years – 12,000 houses. You look at the map of the borough and tell me where you put them?
“The previous Borough Plan, building on Arbury lawn, Weddington, St Nicholas, WhItestone, Bulkington, we have maxed out every bit of land and to add 12,000 houses – the government is asking us to do something that is not possible.”
He asked the council to look at launching a judicial review to stop the government plans.
Cllr Mike Bannister, deputy council leader, said: “The government requires us to do it (the plan) all over again before Local Government Reform, the cost is going to be quite considerable.
“We can do a potential judicial review . We will get in touch with the other 38 or 39 councils who have a similar issue and if there is an an agreement between them to fund the costs of a judicial review, that is a possibility.
“But certainly the government putting that position on us, demanding it goes forward even knowing LGR is just a few weeks way now is absolute nonsense.
“We will certainly look at that issue (judicial review) but we ae not going to be able to sustain that sort of cost (judicial review) on our own and it would have been to be a group of councils acting if there is a will for it.”
Looming LGR result
One thing that could massively change any local housing plan is the pending on the outcome of the government’s Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), which will see the borough council scrapped and replaced with a new one.
It could either be a Warwickshire wide council or, the Town Hall’s preferred option, a new council formed provide council services in the North including North Warwickshire and Rugby Borough Council.
In either case the number of homes set to be built across the area could change and there were calls for the process to be paused until the results of the LGR review are known.
But councillor Shane Coates-Jarman, cabinet member for planning, said it was agreed at a local plan meeting that the council would continue the start of the borough plan, which is currently out to consultation.
This is set to last until md August, by which time the results of the LGR review should have been announced by the government.
In the meantime, it was agreed that Cllr George Finch, leader of the council. would write to the government to express concerns about its proposed housing target for the borough.
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