“Lay off our green belt” says Rushcliffe Council Leader to Deputy PM
Last updated: 5/8/2024
The Leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council(RBC) Cllr Neil Clarke has issued a stark warning to the Deputy Prime Minister following new housing guidelines stating “lay off our green belt”.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner MP outlined on Tuesday (July 30) a new strategy for Green Belt land release and local authorities now needing to review their green belt areas if needed to meet housing targets.
It follows over 13,000 new homes being allocated to have been built in Rushcliffe in the last decade.
RBC also had to accept central government’s ‘duty to co-operate’ to agree to an additional 3,500 more homes, over and above the 6,000 already allocated, to meet the needs of the Nottingham City local authority area, dwellings the City Council said it could not accommodate.
The current consultation stage of new housing targets has outlined nearly 4,000 further new homes need to be built in the Borough until 2041, rising from 609 annually to 831.
By comparison the same consultation indicates the Nottingham City local authority area, with a higher number of brown or newly defined grey belt sites, has been given a lower target reducing annually from 1,845 homes to 1,451.
Cllr Clarke said: “The message to the Deputy Prime Minister is hands off our green belt, we have accepted more than enough of our fair share.
“Our residents are understandably very protective of it having already seen first hand the large volumes of housing built in their communities in the last 10 years, many having to be included at central government’s increased demands in the last Local Plan in 2014.
“We fully understand there is housing shortage nationally but we have already stepped up to the plate and here in Rushcliffe developers have already built some of the highest levels of new houses of anywhere in the East Midlands in recent years. We simply can’t build on more green belt land unjustly.
“The government now claim they are changing the method used to calculate housing need so it better reflects the urgency on supply and we should now plan for homes proportionate to the size of existing communities.
“If that is the case, we have already built more than we needed and any increase on existing levels from this point forwards would not be proportionate. For example, the city’s needs with housing, must be much greater than Rushcliffe’s.
“This is especially in light of nationally over 1.1 million allocated new homes with planning permission are yet to be built.
“I share the Local Government Association’s views too that there should be changes to national planning policy that should allow flexibility to us and fellow authorities to make judgement decisions on managing the demands of planning policy and housing targets."
It builds on Cllr Clarke’s letter to the new Rushcliffe MP James Naish earlier this month in a plea to protect the Borough from development of the green belt in anticipation of this announcement.
Cllr Clarke added: “I look forward to speaking to our local MP as soon as he responds to my request in my recent letter on this incredibly important matter so we can protect our green belt land and our communities. I encourage all residents to write to the MP and feedback your opinions on the new housing targets.”