Councillors call on government to ‘rip up’ housing targets

Councillors are calling on the Government to ‘rip up’ the housing formula, which has more than doubled their annual housing requirement.

The Local Plan, adopted by Lewes District Council in 2016, set an annual requirement of 345 new homes. But the Government’s goal of 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s has more than doubled this figure to 783 properties across the district every year.

The Government announced earlier this month that their housing target would become advisory, with flexibility to account for local circumstances.

Following the announcement, the Council described the news as offering ‘false hope’ for local residents that housing projects will no longer go ahead.

Councillor Zoe Nicholson, Deputy Leader of Lewes District Council, said: “The comments by the Secretary of State for Levelling-Up creates a smokescreen to pacify all those who are as appalled by the Government’s housing targets as we are in Lewes district. The announcement offers zero certainty for residents and instead spreads false hope that unwanted development now won’t happen.”

In Newhaven, housing projects introducing hundreds of new homes has raised concerns for local infrastructure and facilities, such as traffic, school places and GP surgeries.

Councillor Nicholson adds: “The Government’s planning system has united people against it, not least because these ill-conceived housing numbers are causing great and unnecessary concern to many communities. They should rip up their method for working them out and listen to local people, not policy makers in Whitehall.

“All our residents can be assured that we will continue to painstakingly gather and analyse all the evidence and it is only by leaving no stone unturned that we will be able to demonstrate to the planning inspector, at the examination stage, the level of new housing that is sustainable for our district, not what the Government dictates that we must build.”

Councillor Stephen Gauntlett, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: “Our local plan was the subject of a rigorous consultation process and included realistic housing numbers, providing sound protection against maverick speculation. It would make sense in my view to have that plan reinstated!”

Housing decisions should be in the hands of local people