West Berkshire Council has proposed additional housebuilding sites ‘with great reluctance’ following a demand from a planning inspector.
The unitary council was told its Local Plan, covering 2023-2041, contained a shortfall of around 850 homes against a minimum requirement of 9,270.
It has now put forward four extra sites in Thatcham, Calcot and Pangbourne, with 433 proposed homes.
To meet the inspector’s request, West Berkshire identified another area north of Newbury with the potential to deliver 650-800 homes from 2034 onwards.
The planning inspector also said plans at another site should be expanded to deliver 2,500, rather than 1,500, homes, but the council said most of the extra housing would not be delivered until after 2041.
West Berkshire’s portfolio holder for planning and housing, Denise Gains, said the council was left with ‘no choice’ but to submit extra sites ‘because the Government would very probably take over the plan process if we failed to engage at this time’.
She said it was ‘a very bitter pill to swallow’.
Last year, West Berkshire asked the Government if it could withdraw its Local Plan, which it inherited from the previous administration and said was ‘poor’, but the request was denied.
Council leader Jeff Brooks recently told the planning inspector in a letter: ‘We are once again extremely disappointed at being instructed to follow a course of action that we know will result in even more dissatisfaction within our communities.’
