Comments on: Wokingham Times http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/07/01/wokingham-times-15/ Conservative Party Candidate for Wokingham Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:16:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Cliff http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/07/01/wokingham-times-15/#comment-21949 Cliff Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:37:25 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/?p=1161#comment-21949 When we were recently questioned regarding proposed developments in the area, we were given, in effect, the choice of site A or site B. We were not given the choice of no further development thank you. When people returned these forms to the SERA, the quango could say legitimately that the local people supported plan A or B. If a no further development option had been included on the questionairre, I suspect this option would have been more popular. I understand that much of the need for new homes is generated by the increase in the number of people that choose to live alone and relationship breakdowns. I also believe that immigrants have also contributed to the demand for the further building of more homes, however, as economically our country becomes less attractive to would be migrants, I suspect the demand from the latter group will slow and this will take some pressure off, some areas. I suspect with the government's anti marriage tax and benefits systems, the former two groups are likely to continue to grow and thus put pressure on housing supply. One other concern I have, is the trend for many local councils to only give planning permission if the would be developer agrees to provide another amenity such as a bridge or a station or a community centre etc, is this not really a sort of "backhander" in essence? When we were recently questioned regarding proposed developments in the area, we were given, in effect, the choice of site A or site B. We were not given the choice of no further development thank you. When people returned these forms to the SERA, the quango could say legitimately that the local people supported plan A or B. If a no further development option had been included on the questionairre, I suspect this option would have been more popular.

I understand that much of the need for new homes is generated by the increase in the number of people that choose to live alone and relationship breakdowns. I also believe that immigrants have also contributed to the demand for the further building of more homes, however, as economically our country becomes less attractive to would be migrants, I suspect the demand from the latter group will slow and this will take some pressure off, some areas. I suspect with the government’s anti marriage tax and benefits systems, the former two groups are likely to continue to grow and thus put pressure on housing supply.

One other concern I have, is the trend for many local councils to only give planning permission if the would be developer agrees to provide another amenity such as a bridge or a station or a community centre etc, is this not really a sort of “backhander” in essence?

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