Medway Council branded as one of the worst for housing by the Levelling Up Secretary

The Leader of Medway Council says building 30,000 homes by 2040 will be a challenge but insists the Local Plan will be delivered.

Transcript

00:00 In the final working week of the year, those at Medway Council had hoped for a quiet one.

00:06 This all came tumbling down when the levelling up secretary branded Medway Council as one

00:11 of the worst local authorities for housing planning.

00:13 "Today I'm issuing a direction to seven of the worst authorities in terms of plan making

00:18 who have failed not just to do a doctor plan but even to submit one to examination since

00:23 2004. St Albans, Amber Valley, Ashfield, Medway, Upplesford, Basildon and Conselpoint will

00:31 all need to provide me with a planned timetable within 12 weeks."

00:35 Today Medway leader Vince Maple has called on Michael Gove to visit the town and insists

00:40 they will meet housing targets in the 2040 local plan.

00:44 "And you've got 12 weeks now to come up with a plan, so do you have a plan?"

00:48 "Look, we've got a clear plan. We were clear before the election that this was going to

00:52 be a priority for us. The previous Conservative administration failed to deliver this for

00:56 more than two decades. We're getting on with the job that we've been given to do. It's

01:01 really unfortunate that Michael Gove didn't recognise any of that in his letter to me,

01:06 didn't recognise that in his speech yesterday. I hope they'll take this opportunity to come

01:09 in and engage, see the positive approach the new administration are taking."

01:14 The opposition has been approached for comment.

01:16 And earlier this year the levelling up department scrapped £170m of housing infrastructure

01:22 funding in Medway, something the leader says has made the local plan a challenge to deliver.

01:28 Local homeless charity Gillingham Street Angels deemed Gove's comments as harsh but said Medway

01:33 does need more affordable housing.

01:35 "Obviously housing is a massive problem at the moment across the country. The houses

01:39 being built in Medway, I'm not completely sure myself, but are they for social housing?

01:44 Are these affordable houses for people to go into? Or are we bringing more people out

01:47 of area who, you know, we're struggling to look after our own people. What we don't want

01:51 is people coming out of the area, putting more resources under pressure. There's a lot

01:56 of problems as it is, you know, whether the NHS, the rail services, the buses, all these

02:00 things are already under pressure. The last thing we want to do is put more pressure on

02:03 them. We need to be looking after the people we've already got here, housing them. Why

02:07 build houses to bring in more people? It just seems to be pointless."

02:10 Michael Gove said that developments could be resisted if they didn't fit within an area's

02:14 character, harms the environment or if there isn't infrastructure sufficient to support

02:19 it - a change which some say effectively relaxes housing targets.

02:24 Medway Council has a commitment to build almost 30,000 homes by 2040 and said they'll continue

02:29 to work at their local plan to deliver this.

02:33 2023 may be drawing to a close but Medway Council's to-do list certainly isn't. They

02:37 now have 12 weeks to put together a housing plan to present to the levelling up secretary.

02:42 Michael Gove has said if they don't do this within the 12 weeks, central government will

02:46 intervene. So it seems Medway Council definitely has their work cut out for them for 2024.

02:51 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Medway.