Dear Supporters,
On Monday 20th January Members of the Wirral Green Space Alliance asked questions to the Council Economy Housing and Regeneration Committee.
In answering one of the questions the Council stated that they did NOT agree with the Government’s House Building Targets which will see swathes of Green Belt under threat and an increase in Wirral’s population of 60,000+
Later in the meeting the Assistant Director of Housing explained that over 5,200 people were seeking social housing and around 1,000 were homeless at any one time in the borough.
How will the Government’s plans to allow big housing developers to build vast estates of executive homes on the Green Belt help these people who need genuinely affordable social housing? “Affordable” homes built as part of these estates for the wealthy are still unaffordable to those most in need.
Whilst the Council disagrees with the Government, it is reported that Matthew Patrick MP for Wirral West agrees with the Governments proposals.
Wirral Green Space Alliance have been seeking an urgent meeting with the 4 Wirral MPs since the new housing targets were announced last year.
You can hear the Wirral Green Space Alliance Questions on the Council Webcam here under item 5a Public Questions:
https://wirral.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/937902
Economy Regeneration & Housing Committee - Monday 20 January 2025, 6:00pm - Wirral Council Webcasting
A Transcript of the questions and answers are below. We will report the answers to the Supplementary Questions when we have received them.
We will continue to ask questions of the Council and we will continue to seek a meeting with the 4 Wirral MPs
Thank you for your continued support.
Q: John Heath Convenor of Wirral Green Space Alliance
“Wirral Green Space Alliance still supports the Council developing the Local Plan and despite concerns over housing need, risks and delays associated with unnecessarily inflated figures. Specialists including the OSR (Office for Statistics Regulation), former Government Advisor an pre-eminent population expert Professor Ludi Simpson and belatedly Liverpool University itself accept Professor Gregg’s, that’s our (WGSA) Professor Gregg’s arguments and a (housing need) figure of 4400. For years we have asked “whence commeth the 20- 30,000 new Wirral residents?”, but answer came there none. Now given the Government’s (new) illogical methodology (for calculating housing need) opposed by over 90% of Councils is Committee i) aware, ii) accepting of and iii) able to disclose the sources of the associated 60,000+ additional residents who would alter the Wirral character fundamentally and require massive Green Belt release.
A: Councillor Tony Jones “The Committee is aware of the new method of calculating housing targets contained within the National Planning Policy Framework and the Committee does not accept that the new Standard Method accurately reflects the need for housing in Wirral. The Committee do not have any matters to disclose in relation to the source of any such data and the views of the Council have been made clear in the response to the draft NPPF Consultation which are available to view on the Council website and have been shared with Wirral Green Space Alliance.
Q: John Heath: “As a follow up, we are not asking you to disclose anything that is confidential, what we have asked is are you accepting of the figure of 60,000 or even the earlier figure of 20-25000 people coming to the Wirral. We need to know that you are either accepting or not accepting of that figure. If you are accepting of that figure, where are they coming from? What is the driver seeing as there is no improvement to the employment on Wirral, are they all going to be without jobs? Where are they all coming from is the question that this Council has failed to let us know since 2018 and it is no longer acceptable.”
A:Councillor Tony Jones: Thank you and you will receive a full written answer to the your supplementary question.
Q: Mr Rod Tann / Chair of the Wirral Society (working within the Wirral Green Space Alliance a sub group of the Wirral Society)
The Wirral Green Space Alliance understood that following the Extraordinary Council meeting last August, the Council had agreed to meet the Government’s New Towns Task Force to promote the concept of a New Town within an Old Town in Birkenhead. So adding impetus and experienced regeneration leadership to a locally led urban development corporation. Much in the way Liverpool is progressing at the moment…and it would have added the robustness and traction and speed of delivery of its Birkenhead 2040 Framework and the Local Plan Development Strategy. Was this not the case, and why has doubt been cast on this exciting prospect and seemingly accepted without the involvement of Committee, Senior Managers and Stakeholders?
A: Councillor Tony Jones:
“The Council is in dialogue with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) about its commitment to deliver new homes as set out in the Local Plan. As part of the work of the newly established New Towns Task Force, an invitation from MHCLG for calls for evidence, the Council prepared a draft Expression of Interest setting out its plans for housing delivery. During the process clarity was sought from MHCLG regarding the criteria and specifically the threshold for 10,000 new homes and whether these homes could already be identified in our Local Plan trajectory or whether they would need to be in addition to those already in the Local Plan. At the time MHCLG was unable to provide clarity and on that basis the Expression of Interest submission was drafted based on the new homes proposed within the Local Plan. However, further clarity from MHCLG provided at a later date confirmed that the call for evidence related to the proposal of 10000+ new homes over and above that already set out in the Local Plan. As a result of that advice, the Director of Regeneration and Place took the decision that an Expression of Interest (EOI) Submission would not be made on the basis that the draft EOI did not meet the criteria and that any submission might prejudice the Council’s commitment to delivery as set out in the Local Plan
Q: Rod Tann: “Thank you very much for that very full answer, Chair. We still feel that there is the opportunity that the Council should have been engaging directly with the New Towns Task Force. I gather that although the end date for formal submissions was December last year, the New Towns Task Force is still open to what they call “active dialogue”, so we very much hope and this was refelected in your statement that the Council is still in touch with the New Towns Task Force directly. One question that I would like to pose to the Council is: Given that Liverpool City Council has made great strides in developing not only a “Futures Panel” but now subsequently made a formal application for a UDC to promote its Liverpool North Development. Would it be a possibility that this Council might find it useful to explore with the Metro Mayor and Liverpool City Council, the possibility of actually linking in their current application to the New Towns Task Force with that of this Borough’s Birkenhead 2040 Vision?
A: Councillor Tony Jones: “Thank you for your supplementary question Mr Tann” you will receive a full written reply in due course.