Opinion: Why Tory Bosses Can Disregard Fallout from Guildford’s Housing Boom 

Published on: 25 May, 2021
Updated on: 26 May, 2021

Open Democracy story June 2020

By Martin Giles

Conservative party bosses care more about their building developer donors than they do about Guildford.

This should not be a shock to you. It has been obvious for some time.

But there is nothing we can do about it.

Even if the concern about overdevelopment and loss of green belt resulted in South East Conservative MPs like ours, Angela Richardson, losing their seats at the next general election it is unlikely to be at a scale that could cause a Tory majority at Westminster to be threatened. Especially, given the loss of Scottish seats by Labour and the inroads into the Northern “red wall” made by the Tories.

Conservatives in their central office can carry on thumbing their noses at Surrey residents while the cheques from property developers continue to arrive.

And now it is anticipated that the new Planning Bill will pander to developers even further and reduce even more the little control local authorities retain on planning.

The Open Democracy website reported in June last year that the Conservatives had received more than £11 million from some of the UK’s richest property developers and construction businesses since Boris Johnson became prime minister July 2019. How many more £millions in the last year?

Times story February 13 (2021)

Donors, of course, expect and receive influence. They won’t care that the Local Government Association has said that more than 1.1 million homes in England, which have received planning permission over the last decade, are yet to be built. The Association called for new powers to be given to councils to encourage developers to build housing more quickly.

Don’t hold your breath.

Local Conservatives, MPs and councillors, have now woken up to the realisation that Guildford’s Local Plan has made their brand toxic to many in the borough and things are likely to get worse.

Even as Solum’s “Great Wall of Guildford” rises at the railway station, spoiling sightlines and casting long shadows across the townscape, enough light will remain to see clearly the malign effect of Conservative planning policy.

Residents in The Horsleys and Send don’t need to wait. The removal of green belt protection has already led to unwanted and unpopular developments.

While in the west of the borough, poor Ash continues to suffer from the insatiable appetite of developers to eat up what little green space they have left. Even historic listed buildings like Ash Manor receive no real protection to their setting (see: Protest At Historic Ash Site Forces Planning Deferral).

Angela Richardson’s conservativehome article

Ms Richardson, an erstwhile supporter of the Local Plan, writing in conservativehome, reflected on the county council election result: ”There was no tangible evidence of a vaccine bounce, regardless of the marvel that vaccine roll-out has been. Instead, our local elections were fought on borough level planning issues, a hangover from the Local Plan implemented by the Conservative-controlled administration at borough council shortly before the May 2019 elections – with massive strategic sites eating into the green belt – which saw the electorate remove every single Conservative councillor in the Guildford Borough Council part of my constituency.

“That Conservative administration did its noble duty in bringing forward the best plan possible, to consult and find sites with a brownfield first approach to avoid the risk of having development imposed on them by central government which would not reflect the communities wishes – and to avoid building hulking tower blocks that we see in neighbouring Woking.

“…the local community, though understanding the lack of affordable housing for key workers and those who had lived their entire lives in Guildford and wanted the same for their children, wanted the Local Plan stopped and voted in a brand new residents group who pledged to stop it.”

But the 10,000 to 14,000 houses currently in the Local Plan are not just for the offspring of existing residents, the birth and death rate would not justify that, and the houses envisaged by developers will not be truly affordable nor social housing. No, Guildford Borough’s population is expected to grow through migration, international and domestic, although the stats looked decidedly dodgy and, probably, already well out of date.

So our Tory MP is pinning her hopes on a change of heart within her policy-making colleagues. She says: “A well-organised group of Conservative MPs successfully made the argument to look again at a housing algorithm that would have seen a disproportionate number of houses land right on our doorsteps in the South East.

“I will keep working with them to make sure that planning will be fit for what we need in Guildford and surrounds, not something imposed to hit a target…”

She needs to succeed. Anger over the Local Plan is likely to remain and perhaps increase as its effects are further realised.

Cllr Paul Spooner

Confirmation comes from an unlikely source. Paul Spooner, who pushed through the plan in the face of huge resistance, commented on Ms Richardson’s article: “As the previous Conservative leader in Guildford… I agree wholeheartedly with Angela’s concerns and the risk to our traditional core vote in Surrey.

“Meeting the housing needs identified through the [objectively assessed need] and adopting the Local Plan may have satisfied government and contributed in a small way to the local demand for housing, but at what political cost!”

At what local political cost indeed? But more importantly to some of us, at what cost to our borough?

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