Agenda item

The By-Election in  Rochester West will focus on the failing services of Medway Council including the abysmal action by Kelly Tolhurst MP to address the ever-increasing housing crisis in Medway.  Medway Members will also be aware of the grotesque greed of directors of independent house builders which Medway Council relies upon to meet the Council's  housing policy and the majority of the needs of Medway residents. One Chief Executive alone celebrated being paid over £110 million - sufficient to build over 700 new homes.

Such actions would appear to be directly related to the very worrying and unexpected monitoring trends set out in the Cabinet report dated 19 December 2017 - Local Plan: Authority Monitoring Report. The report shows unexpected increases in population from internal migration from London coming to live in Medway which is a particularly worrying trend for many Medway residents desperately saving £70,000 to get on the housing ladder and currently forced to pay ever-increasing rents.  The report also shows an ever-increasing trend whereby  7,632 homes have been given planning permission but remain unbuilt.  

From the trends reported, can the Leader of the Council confirm that should the likely number of homes to be built against the new Local Plan 29,950 target needed to meet the increasing population needs of Medway residents not be achieved, that it will have no alternative but to take on board UKIP's recommendation whereby the Council borrows money against its assets and instructs the new Medway Council Housing Company to build any shortfall on brownfield sites?

Clearly, it is not possible for more people to be squashed into local communities without proper investment in housing and infrastructure.      

“The By-Election in  Rochester West will focus on the failing services of Medway Council including the abysmal action by Kelly Tolhurst MP to address the ever-increasing housing crisis in Medway.  Medway Members will also be aware of the grotesque greed of directors of independent house builders which Medway Council relies upon to meet the Council's  housing policy and the majority of the needs of Medway residents. One Chief Executive alone celebrated being paid over £110 million - sufficient to build over 700 new homes.

Such actions would appear to be directly related to the very worrying and unexpected monitoring trends set out in the Cabinet report dated 19 December 2017 - Local Plan: Authority Monitoring Report. The report shows unexpected increases in population from internal migration from London coming to live in Medway which is a particularly worrying trend for many Medway residents desperately saving £70,000 to get on the housing ladder and currently forced to pay ever-increasing rents.  The report also shows an ever-increasing trend whereby  7,632 homes have been given planning permission but remain unbuilt.  

From the trends reported, can the Leader of the Council confirm that should the likely number of homes to be built against the new Local Plan 29,950 target needed to meet the increasing population needs of Medway residents not be achieved, that it will have no alternative but to take on board UKIP's recommendation whereby the Council borrows money against its assets and instructs the new Medway Council Housing Company to build any shortfall on brownfield sites?

Clearly, it is not possible for more people to be squashed into local communities without proper investment in housing and infrastructure.” 

Councillor Jarrett thanked Councillor Freshwater for his question. He stated that the Council had commissioned a Strategic Housing Market Assessment as part of the evidence base for the new Local Plan. The report published in 2015 considered a range of criteria, including migration rates, in determining the number of homes and types of homes needed in Medway up to 2035.

He stated that the Council monitored a range of data to ensure that the evidence base for planning policy and decisions was up-to-date. The 2017 Authority Monitoring Report published in December 2017 noted an increase in the levels of migration into Medway from London. Similar increases had been seen in neighbouring boroughs, particularly Tonbridge and Malling and Maidstone. It was not unusual for trends to show variation between individual years, and projections use longer term averages.

However, the increased growth resulting in the housing need identified was not just from migration into Medway from London.  It was also representative of the increased birth rate in Medway and people thankfully living longer. The Local Plan currently being prepared would include policies to deal with the housing for all; young, old, single and families.

He stated that the government had recently announced a high-level independent review into the gap between the number of planning permissions being granted and those built in areas of high demand. There were 7,500 homes for which there was planning permission granted but not delivered. He welcomed this move and the Council was taking action on this matter, working with land owners and developers to deliver on the permissions being granted.  In addition the Council had representation on the Kent Developers Group, working with developers to assist them moving through the planning process, to deliver housing and crucially encourage the growth of (Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The Council regularly met with developers to try to unlock barriers to development on appropriate and sustainable sites. He referenced that the Chief Executive and he had met with a group of developers only the previous evening.

Regeneration and the use of brownfield land were core to the Council’s plans for Medway. In addition to the established regeneration programme, the new Local Plan would seek to bring forward further redevelopment opportunities on vacant and underused land. The Council had published a Brownfield Land Register to promote sites suitable for development. Many of the sites identified already had planning permission, or policy support, showing that Medway had been successful in directing development to brownfield sites.

He concluded by stating that a demonstration of the importance of brownfield regeneration could be seen with the recent permissions for such waterfront sites as Rochester, Strood and Chatham. The Local Plan would have an emphasis on regeneration and use of brownfield land and will deliver the Council’s aspiration of “Growth for All”.