Letter: The Housing Target, Decided on Duff Stats, Is the Elephant in the Room

Published on: 14 May, 2022
Updated on: 14 May, 2022

From: Ben Paton

former Conservative and GGG candidate on borough elections

In response to: Government’s New Approach to Planning Receives Sceptical Response

The elephant in the room is the Housing Target set by the previous Conservative administration in Guildford.

It is based on Office for National Statistics (ONS) projections of housing need that the agency now admits are wrong.

Despite being on notice that the statistics were wrong, the Conservative administration adopted them without challenge. On top of that, it refused to limit the housing target to recognise local constraints such as inadequate local road and school infrastructure and environmental constraints such as the green belt.

Residents for Guildford & Villages (R4GV) candidates were elected on a manifesto pledge to review the disastrous Local Plan. The flagrant mistakes in the Housing Target presented an obvious ground for review. Yet it has done nothing.