Defunct north Essex development plan for 43,000 homes could be resurrected
Plans for garden villages between Uttlesford and Tending were thrown out in 2020
Defunct plans for a north Essex garden community of 43,000 homes could be resurrected in the wake of Labour’s housing commitments.
Leader of Braintree District Council Councillor Graham Butland has voiced his frustration that large elements of the plans for garden villages between Uttlesford and Tending were thrown out in 2020 after a Government Inspector deemed them to be undeliverable.
But Councillor Butland said he has now asked his officers to examine the announcement made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves underlining her commitment to build 1.5million new homes by the next election with an overhaul of planning rules she said are stopping Britain building.
That means at least elements of the North Essex Garden Community project – which totalled 43,000 homes along the North Essex A120 corridor, with significant employment opportunities and transformational new infrastructure – could be looked at again.
He said: “At the time I said this is the biggest piece of municipal socialism I have ever been involved in.
“And it was because it meant the local authorities – Braintree, Colchester and Tendring, were planning something different.
“We weren’t just planning on concrete houses. we were taking land value out from the developers to put in infrastructure to go with it.
“We were planning a community and not just building houses. That’s the difference – I want to build communities and not just houses.
“If we have a government that wants to do the same I’m up for whatever they have got.
“I know it will upset some people who we upset last time and we took a lot of flak. But unfortunately one planning inspector who was six months from retirement decided otherwise.
“I realise that some people will not want houses but then they have to be answerable to what they are doing with homelessness in the area and the future generations.”
NEGC owned by Braintree District Council, Colchester City Council, Tendring District Council, and Essex County Council with each having one place on the company board, was created to provide housing for three new settlements at West of Braintree, on the Braintree/ Colchester border and on the Tendring and Colchester border.
They looked to deliver up to 43,000 new homes along the North Essex A120 corridor, with significant employment opportunities and transformational new infrastructure.
Following an examination in public, on 15 May 2020 the councils received the Planning Inspector’s letter concluding that the Braintree/Colchester borders Garden Community and the West of Braintree Garden Community were not viable and, therefore, not deliverable. The Inspector did agree, however, that the Tendring and Colchester borders Garden Community was viable and deliverable.
However the mood in Government has changed since Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed Labour’s commitment to build 1.5million new homes by the next election with an overhaul of planning rules that are stopping Britain building.
She said new developments will be allowed on some parts of the green belt after review of the boundaries by local authorities.
The Government will however prioritise brownfield and so-called grey belt land for housebuilding, which would include affordable housing and housing for social rent.
Mandatory housebuilding targets will be restored and 300 additional planning officers will be hired to speed up decisions.
She has added decisions for major infrastructure projects will be made nationally rather than locally to stop important schemes getting tied up in red tape.
Councillor Butland said: “I have asked my officers to look at some of the announcement being made this week and how we might be able as a council help the government achieve what it wants to do.
“If that means helping to ease the housing crisis we have in our district I am willing to talk to anyone how we do that because we have people on the housing waiting list and also people in their 20 and 30s still living at home with their parents.”