17:19 Thursday 7th January 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
CHRIS MANN: In East Cambridgshire some councillors are angry they weren’t consulted about changes to rules on affordable housing. An announcement was put on the Council’s website that the amount developers have to build on site has been reduced by 50%. It’s being discussed at a Council meeting which starts in the next hour. In a moment of two we’ll hear from the Leader of the Council, but first of all to the person making the complaint, who is the LibDem councillor for Sutton, Lorna Dupre, who has proposed a motion. Lorna hello to you.
LORNA DUPRE: Good evening.
CHRIS MANN: So what’s the problem?
LORNA DUPRE: Well I was somewhat surprised to receive on November 5th an email telling me that the Council had decided to tear up its expectations for affordable housing development in East Cambridgeshire, and to halve the amount of affordable housing it was expecting developers to provide across the district, and that instead it would be asking developers to make a financial contribution to the Council, which could then be used for its community land trust, and to oil the financial wheels of its new local authority trading company. It seems to me that given the amount of consultation that Local Plans go through when they’re being drawn up, and given the urgency of the need for housing of all types, but particularly affordable housing in East Cambridgeshire, that to tear up our expectations like this, without a public discussion, is quite bizarre and quite inappropriate.
In poker terms James you blinked in this stand-off with the developers.
CHRIS MANN: So it’s a watering down of the amount of affordable housing. And I guess, at the start of the process, it’s one of the things that gets you hooked, isn’t it? Ah, there’ll be good houses here for people who need to get on the housing ladder. But by the time it gets to the end of the process, that number has changed significantly.
LORNA DUPRE: Well that’s right. The Council has itself admitted that it’s only overseeing in total the building of something like a quarter of the extra homes we need each year. We need huge numbers of increased housing across East Cambridgeshire, and not only now but we’ve also just embarked on the process of developing a new Local Plan that will see us through for the next twenty years. And if we wave a great big white flag at developers now and say oh look, we’re halving our expectation of the affordable housing you’re supposed to build, just give us some money instead, that seems to me a big white flag that is going to mean it’s very difficult to insist on more affordable housing for the foreseeable future.
CHRIS MANN: By a big white flag, are you saying in effect that the Council has surrendered in its negotiations with the developers?
LORNA DUPRE: That appears to be the implication of what’s being said, if you’re only expecting them to build half of what we originally said we wanted. And there’s all sorts of implications for this, but we really need a public debate about it.
CHRIS MANN: I’ve seen the minutes of the meeting that you’re holding later on.
I know this is the first item up on business, which will be announced by the Leader of the Council I imagine in just over an hour’s time, and he is James Palmer, councillor James Palmer from Soham, and he joins us now. James, evening to you. Thank you for joining us.
JAMES PALMER: Good evening.
CHRIS MANN: I know you’ll be debating this in the hallowed halls of East Cambs later but for public consumption first. Now, you’ve heard the complaint. What do you say? Continue reading “Leader accused of surrender to developers”