Wokingham council building target ignores 2,000 homes, authority says

Wokingham Borough Council said it had built over 2,000 homes in the last eight years

A council has warned it may be asked to build more homes despite exceeding its previous house-building targets.

Wokingham Borough Council said it had built more than 2,000 homes "over and above our requirements since 2006".

However, the authority said the government would not take this into account when updating its rules on how many homes councils had to supply.

The government said it would bring its position on over-supply in line with under-supply "in due course."

Wokingham borough councillor in charge of planning Lindsay Ferris said: "Little has changed.

"As before the government will tell councils how many houses should be built through an unchanged algorithm.

"This means we cannot take account of the near additional 2,000 homes that have been delivered over and above our requirement since 2006."

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities spokesperson said: "We have amended the National Planning Policy Framework to make clear that planning practice guidance contains further information on how past shortfalls or oversupply of housing can be addressed.

"We will update this guidance to bring the over-supply position in line with under-supply in due course."

Mr Ferris said the council had been waiting for the government's announcement before pressing ahead with a new local plan.

This sets out where the authority thinks development should take place in the borough over 15 years, meeting targets set by the government.

But he also said the new local plan would designate 13 "valued landscapes" in the borough that could be protected from development.

He said it could be "a very useful and innovative way of I believe protecting areas for the future".

Follow BBC South on Facebook, X, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail].