Rutland County Council’s housing targets could more than double under Labour government claims Liberal Democrat leader

Housing targets in Rutland could more than double under the new Labour government’s plans, according to the county council’s leader.

As the authority has not been meeting its affordable housing targets and has low levels of social housing, the council’s Liberal Democrat leader Gale Waller said the authority is anticipating that it will be among parts of the county told by the government to build more.

Within days of the July election, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced the government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes across the country in the next five years and it is currently consulting on major changes to the National Planning Policy Framework [NPPF] which will see new formulas imposed on the areas outlining how many homes they should build.

The consultation, which ends on September 24, states that the government’s new focus will be on building homes where they are most needed and least affordable. Rutland is one of the least affordable areas in the region, with house prices nine times the average earnings.

Officers at the council have looked at the consultation and the new formula that is being mooted and think the housing target in Rutland could more than double and increase by 114 per cent. Currently the council’s affordable homes target is 40 per year. The local plan, which is in its final stages of being drawn up, has a total new homes target of 128 per year. This would increase to 273 if the anticipated 114 per cent increase is applied.

Coun Waller said: “The new NPPF is going to change a lot of planning regulations including housing targets. It will be across the whole country, not just Rutland.

“One of the factors they are planning to take into account is that an area that is low on affordable housing has a higher multiplier to try and get more social housing.

"Unlike Stamford, Rutland does not own social housing, so we are totally reliant on social housing providers.

"We have had a target of 30 per cent in our local plan for a number of years, but in recent years we have not met that target because of the decisions made by social landlords.

“It is nothing that we as a council have done. Therefore it looks likely our housing targets will be increased by 114 per cent.

“But it is under consultation so anything could happen.”

She said social housing providers did not often want to take on the small numbers of homes built on the typically smaller developments in the county. Another issue is that due to a cap on rents, social housing providers had been unable to build up reserves to build properties.

And while the council has a 30 per cent affordable housing policy for developments, often developers would not fulfil these targets because after planning permission was granted they would go back and argue the development would not be financially viable with the affordable homes allocation.

She appeared to rule out the possibility of the authority building its own homes.

“We have not got any money. We do not have the millions you would need to start building housing. If you take out a loan you still have to pay it back. When we are cutting right, left and centre, then we are not going to take on other commitments.”

The leader, who has been in charge since May, said she did not think a doubling of the amount of homes would be a good thing for the county, as she feared it would lead to more larger, four-bedroom houses rather than the smaller properties that are needed.

She said: “I am very worried about it. We won’t know until they bring in the changes in the NPPF whether there will be any sanctions if we miss the targets on affordable homes. If they do that I don’t know what we would do.

"One of the key things to improving the whole situation in Rutland is to attract employers who pay more. We have a large number of graduates from Rutland, but they typically move to other areas where there are better paid jobs.

"What I would really like, is for the government to work with us and ask what we can do to solve the problems. As the pandemic showed, local government can find answers.”

She said the government could help get over barriers to planning, by stepping in when there are highways issues to help unlock large development sites.

The issue was mentioned at last night’s town Uppingham Town Council meeting. Chairman David Ainslie said he had met Coun Waller and the county council’s chief executive and said if the anticipated 114 per cent up lift came into effect the number of new homes to built in Uppingham over the 20-year life span of the neighbourhood plan would see the number rise from the current 314 to 672.