Between the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Slough Council and South Buckinghamshire, an informative housing conflict exists. Long before the 4th May local elections, RBWM & Slough had locked horns.The three councils face a spatial problem, (13,500 new homes are foot-loose); a cross border problem, (Slough has the housing shortfall, but no land; RBWM has lots of land, but most is green belt) so the Royal Borough says its not their problem); and finally a political problem (the Royal Borough is, well was until 4th May, Conservative, but Slough is, well was until 4th May, Labour). No love lost locally?
What makes this conflict a potential text book study on planning policy failure? Because at its root is the cause. And as usual, put simply: it is the spatial dimension. Where do the homes go? Fortunately on this occasion there is a brand new, and professional report on spatial options by Stantec, the land use consultants. It was published earlier this year. Stantec recommends various spatial options to their clients, the three councils, for the new housing that reflect planning legislation and their brief. When the penny drops for locals residents adjacent to each building option put forward there will the usual predictable outcry.
In a personal and professional capacity I know the area extremely well, and bought my first housing sites in Ascot and Windsor more than fifty years ago. I lived on the Surrey/Berkshire border for a long time. My diagnosis is this: if Stantec’s key recommendation, for a new settlement at Paley Street, between Maidenhead and Reading of 10,000 new homes, a remote hamlet far from public transport and other public facilities is the pre-eminent outcome of a thorough, painstaking and well-informed spatial analysis, then the planning system is indeed broken. Its ability to deliver the new homes needed with local support is a fairy story. I go one step further. Even with local support, their recommendations, which reflect a planning system not fit for purpose are second or even third rate solutions. We can do better. After WW2 we did. For the next generations we must.
For those of you who want the facts, start with the Maidenhead Advertiser report dated 14 April 2023, before the local elections. After confirming the need for 13,500 new homes by 2039 somewhere in Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead, or South Buckinghamshire they quote Coun. Andrew Johnson the Conservative leader of the RBWM saying he disagreed with the report’s conclusions and added that he would have to be dragged kicking and screaming if asked to provide land for Slough’s surging demand. He adds
”If Slough come knocking, the response will be: ‘ That’s your problem, not mine. I’m not releasing any of my greenbelt to build your houses on, sort you own problems out’ “.
Slough’s Labour leader, Coun James Swindlehurst (no longer) replied by saying
“The fact is that the Royal Borough’s supply problems stem in large part from his own administration’s past political decisions-or lack thereof- in relation to meeting housing need”.
Simon Dudley is now Chairman of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation; was Chairman of Homes England and significantly is a former councillor and leader of the Royal Borough. Commenting (ConservativeHome, 11 May 2023) write on the lessons of the 4th May local elections for RBWM. His analysis carry a different message. He wants the Conservative Party to be the party of home ownership; to create ‘growth areas/zones’ of new cities with increased density and height in urban areas around transport infrastructure like Crossrail; and invest in brownfield land regeneration over the ten years ahead; transform areas of London with new height and density perspectives (where?) and build on Maidenhead’s publicly owned town centre golf course because it is next to Crossrail. He has a point. Otherwise Dudley says his party must be careful to avoid losing the mantle of the party of home ownership. All the same, very naturally in Maidenhead residents are up in arms. A rare, open space amenity which could be opened as an urban park post covid is just what people want and need. Who is right? Is this good planning?
Bob Seely, Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight (ConservativeHome, 12 May 2023) also commenting on the local election results captured the Tory dilemma. First he said
”We have a good story to tell, especially compared to Labour; if our (entirely arbitrary, it has to be said) housing target had been 200,000 or 250,000, we’d be on or near target now”.
Then, I read one of the comments on his piece. “Sorry Bob you hav’nt a clue”. This re-assured me, as I was left wondering if I had joined Alice in her Wonderland.
Naturally politicians in our confrontational system want their political party to stay together to try and win the elections. But isn’t there a bigger duty, to first candidly look at post WW2 housing history to understand why house prices and rents are no longer affordable for the young, and then point out to voters the facts?
Ian Campbell
30 May 2023
