The leader of Ashfield District Council says an extra 1,000 homes the Government now wants the authority to deliver across the area will put even more pressure on local public services including doctors, dentists and schools.
Cllr Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) also said the council will still avoid allowing any extra developments on Green Belt countryside in the district, despite the increase.
The Government responded to his comments by saying that every council “must play their part” in ending a national housing crisis.
As part of the Government’s target to build 370,000 new homes nationally every year, local authorities have been drawing up plans to demonstrate how they can deliver thousands more properties in their areas.
Local authorities like Ashfield are responsible for drawing up housing plans for their area. These allocate sites for developments of thousands of new homes in their communities.
In December, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the Plan for Change – setting out the Labour Government’s new milestone of delivering 1.5 million new homes across the country over five years.
Government inspectors paused a public examination of Ashfield’s new draft local plan – outlining where it will allow new developments – on January 6.
It said planned hearings in January were now on hold following concerns about an 882-house shortfall in the required number.
Ashfield District Council disagrees with the position.
Inspectors had asked the council to plan to allocate spaces for an extra 1,000 new homes in the district over the next 15 years, in addition to the previous 8,226 houses requested.
Cllr Zadrozny said he is worried about the “pressure” communities could face, as an influx of houses could cause a shortage of public services like doctors, dentists and schools.
He added: “The biggest problem is [building new homes] without putting infrastructure in. [The number of] dentists and doctors is a real problem in Ashfield.
“If we build 8,000 new homes there is massive pressure on schools and hospitals. It’s not necessarily the land availability, it’s about making sure it doesn’t impact existing residents and do harm to Ashfield.
“We want to build sustainable communities that have access to facilities. There’s no point building a new settlement if kids can’t get into a school nearby, or if they can’t get a dentist appointment.
“We need support in making sure that infrastructure is invested at the same as housing, not as an after thought.”
Instead, the council is committing to preserving the Green Belt, and will avoid building houses in these areas across the district, Cllr Zadrozny said.
This pledge comes after backlash to previous proposals set out by the council for thousands of homes on Hucknall’s Green Belt – including Whyburn Farm.
Campaigns by residents to halt those plans led to the authority submitting a reduced local plan to ministers.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We are in a housing crisis so all areas of the country must play their part in ending it by building the homes we need.
“We will work in partnership with councils so we can deliver 1.5 million homes over the next five years, while ensuring that we also create the vital infrastructure that people need in their communities.”
The council’s Local Plan Development Committee will meet on February 5 to consider whether any extra sites could potentially be included in the allocations within the draft Local Plan.
If the Committee chooses to propose any additional sites, these will need to be approved by the cabinet and full council later in February before going to public consultation for six weeks.
Following the public consultation, the local plan development committee will decide whether to formally recommend the inclusion of any of these sites in the draft local plan to cabinet and Full Council in the summer.
