Gravesham council might build on Kent green belt due to lack of space
by Jay Fernando, reporter
A shortage of space in Gravesham is the main reason for the heavily protested potential building of 8000 homes on the greenbelt, as announced today by Gravesham council leader David Turner.
The council have previously been criticised for looking to develop housing on the greenbelt, and while the council would ideally not want to build there, Cllr David Turner feels that they may be forced to.
“We haven’t got space for 8000 houses”, said the Gravesham council leader, who explains that that is what they are being asked to build by the government.
“We’ve got to demonstrate that we can find land, and if we don’t, the planning inspector will come along and say ‘There’s a field over there, build all over that’.
“We’re building on brownfield sites wherever we can. It’s just we haven’t got many”.
This comes after Theresa May’s announcement earlier this week to lift the borrowing cap on councils as a way to “solve the housing crisis”.
Despite this, Cllr Turner highlighted that it was unlikely to change much.
“Our problem isn’t finding the people to build the houses, it’s finding the land to build it on”, he said.
From March 2017 to March 2018, there was a decrease in the size of the green belt by 5000 hectares. These statistics, obtained from a recent report published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, showed that this is the largest drop in recent years.
A spokesperson for Gravesham Green Belt Under Threat, has said that he believes that the council is being disingenuous.
“The figures used for saying how many houses are needed have been interpreted in a way that ignores the actual trends in population numbers.” James Ferrin, a member of the protest group said.
“A true reflection of the ONS figures shows that Gravesham actually need 6700 homes over the period, not the new inflated figure.
“There is the space for a housing supply for a good few years. The old hospital, the Lord Street car park, Heritage Quarter. The problem is the developers who have the permissions don’t want to build houses there.”