Rother fails housing delivery test set by Government

Bexhill seafront. Areas such as Rother are not seeing enough housing built according to the Government

The results, which were published last week, showed that over three years just 69 per cent of the number of homes required were built across the district.

Councils that fail the test will be made to significantly boost building rates by finding extra land for development.

Between 2015/16 and 2017/18 a total of 1,008 homes were required in Rother but just 697 new dwellings were built.

A Rother District Council spokesman said: “The Housing Delivery Test is a new measurement produced by central Government based on the delivery of housing over the past three years against the local authorities targets.

“The rate at which housing is delivered within the district is largely in the hands of developers to bring sites forward.

“However, we will be developing an action plan to identify where there may be obstacles which are hindering sites coming forward, and work towards removing these to assist in speeding up the delivery of housing across the district.”

Neighbouring Hastings was one of six local authorities in Sussex to pass the test, delivering 98 per cent of the total required number of homes.

Bill Freeman, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Sussex branch, said: “How the government can expect a failing local authority to achieve these targets by adding 20 per cent on to their numbers beggars belief.

“It’s quite ridiculous – these councils need help not another whipping.”