At our community centre meeting this week in order to keep warm, we codgers couldn’t get over the disingenuous attitude of Councillor Glen Sanderson when describing the Government’s new housing figures for Northumberland as a 222% rise in housing numbers within the massive county he lords over.
In our discussions we used the word disingenuous as when his Tories took office in 2017 they immediately collapsed the Councils then planning document to lower the numbers of housing targets to stop a 2000 home garden village being built near Ponteland backed by the Princes Trust and the then Conservative Government in Office.
The Council from its days as a LibDem/Conservative coalition took on board both social and commercial sales housing needs within its then planning document developing a sustainable community strategy running alongside the planning document, taking into account the need to keep villages alive to maintain schools and services right across Northumberland outside the national park. The document contained a MINIMUM set within the regional spatial strategy of 885 as a standstill figure due to the growth of second homes right across the County and the number of void properties needing huge financial input to bring them up to a decent standard for occupation. In 2017 there were 22,000 homes in train to be built by 2026 with 2000 of those permissions being within the Garden Village scheme it still leaves the development figure at that time as 2,222 per annum, with many of those brought forward from ex district councils who saw the need to increase housing to increase cash for service delivery purposes.
The immediate effect of removing the Core Strategy Document and replacing it with a new technical paper that hardened in the 885 figure which drove the new local plan; with successive Conservative Governments demanding that figure to be increased bowing to pressure from developers particularly as the Council regularly has seen an average of 1500 new homes built each year since 2013 such is the demand from the public to live in Northumberland.
The Leaders lack of vision led to the Council’s new planning document running down the figure acceptable to the Tories as 549 a number that has been described as a ‘Village Killing’ figure especially when the Council’s own documentation gives a new MINIMUM figure of 1,268 per year to meet not only demand but need,of which a third need to be provided for social rent
Councillor Sanderson and his planning henchman Councillor Horncastle who its reported recently told a meeting that his Council ‘does not build Council Houses but it may buy some’ have just not sat
down to see the light when it comes to the Government's new growth figure of 1,768 for the ‘whole’ of the County.
It's the ‘whole’ of the County that's the simple answer to this conundrum.
Reading the Westmorland and Cumbria open reports (Derbyshire haven’t published yet), they are looking at these new figures in a positive fashion and we codgers will explain using Northumberland instead of other areas which contain national parks.
Councillors Sanderson and Horncastle need to sit down with both the National Parks authority who ARE part of the Government's new figures and the 148 Parish Council leaders across Northumberland and talk through with them how they can help.
The real figure is the difference between the Council planners figure of 1,268 and 1,768 a difference of 500 per year if each parish agreed to grow by 3 dwellings each year (that's whole parishes not individual villages) the new number would be taken up quite easily. This growth of new homes would help maintain schools and services across the County and with the problems the Council has trying to sack 60 teachers is really a necessity. It would also keep small builders going, increase apprentice rates and boost FE as well as the general economy right across the County.
The disingenuous leader as well as not accepting his officers' new figures as dying villages seem to suit his needs stated that the new figures would increase the County population by a third. The County is home to the lowest rate of persons per hectare in England with only 0.65% of a person dwelling in each Hectare of Land. An increase of the population by a third would only increase that number to 0.87% of a person per Hectare still the lowest in England.
If the two Councillors need inspiration they only need to look at the work currently being delivered in the Countryside by two of our local housing associations, Karbon Homes mixed tenure development in Bellingham which includes homes for social rent, their planned development in East Chevington and Bernicia homes purchase of properties for social rent from Ascent homes in Ellington to pave the way and gift them some vision on how to be as positive as other Councils in delivering people desire to have a roof over their heads which they can call home.
https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/24590046.labour-hits-back-council-leader-housing-need/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cje3pg78yd3o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00241sd/politics-north-north-east-and-cumbria-13102024?fbclid=IwY2xjawGBkc9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSuHzDwJ6_lAq6oNXusPRoIaiyGcebdvihkvQKgzdJfmwequgfs84SV1iA_aem_URn2syg_rbRLB97m1glIAQ