Wokingham Invites Sites for New Homes

Wokingham Borough Council is asking landowners, developers and others to suggest sites for new homes as it begins work on a new Local Plan to 2045. The call for sites is on the Engage Wokingham website and closes at 11.59pm on 1 September.

This call is separate from the Local Plan Update, which was prompted after plans for the Grazeley Garden Town were effectively vetoed when the Ministry of Defence extended the emergency nuclear planning zone. The update proposes around 3,930 homes for a Loddon Valley Garden Village, shifting development east of Grazeley.

The planning inspectorate said the Local Plan Update is on track for approval on 11 August. The process began in 2021 under the previous Conservative administration and has been carried forward by the current Liberal Democrat council. Sites suggested during the update could re-emerge, such as the Berkeley Group proposal for 2,500 homes in Ruscombe called Twyford Gardens.

Stephen Conway (Liberal Democrats, Twyford, Ruscombe & Hurst) said: "The only way to remedy that is to have a new Local Plan."

He added: "For the current Local Plan, the inspector has made recommendations for modifications, and we're very happy with the process to move forward as quickly as possible."

"We need to get back a five-year land supply protection against speculative development, then begin another local plan," he said.

"We're obliged to start work on that even before the local plan update process has finished, as we're not being left much breathing space."

The council says that since 2006 more than 2,000 homes have been built over and above the borough's requirement. Between 2018 and 2021, 4,006 homes were completed against a target of 2,125 - an overdelivery of 1,881 homes.

Pauline Jorgensen (Conservative, Hillside) said: "At the beginning we worked with the Lib Dems to lobby for central government to reduce the targets; we were all pushing in the same direction."

She added: "For years we built more houses than we had to."

Jorgensen criticised national targets: "The Labour government is putting up the housing targets for Wokingham. What they should be doing is building on brownfield sites in London. The councils in London are not meeting their housing targets."

She also said: "Builders prefer greenfield sites as they are easier to build on, but they need to be forced to build in London. The targets are tough in rural and semi-rural areas like ours, whereas London councils are missing their housebuilding targets."

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter