Milton Keynes Council ‘doesn’t have a plan’ for how it will build hundreds of new homes

    Wednesday, 9 September 2020 13:28

    By Local Democracy Reporter - David Tooley @TooleyMedia

    The council does not have a plan for how it will implement a flagship policy to build hundreds of new homes of its own across Milton Keynes.

    A meeting on Tuesday heard how Milton Keynes Council is earmarking £287.4million from its housing revenue account to “build and acquire” 1,258 new council homes by 2030.

    The council has committed to building 500 new council homes by 2022 and a further 700 by 2030, totalling 1200.

    Council leaders believe the investment will make make a significant contribution to wiping out homelessness in the city.

    But there is still no sign of a plan for delivering on that commitment, and an experienced Liberal Democrat councillor put a Labour cabinet member on the spot at the virtual meeting.

    Cllr Jenni Ferrans (Monkston) said: “I was very disappointed to see that still we have no clear plan for the new build.

    “We have this total target but there are no milestones, apart from the 500.

    “There are no targets within this year, etc, so I hope within the next very few months indeed we will start to get a better, more concrete plan and with some targets set for the next one and two years.”

    Cllr Emily Darlington (Lab, Bletchley East) is the council’s elected head of public realm and housing.

    She said she and council officers are “working on that right now.”

    They are due to also discuss the sensitive issue of potential sites for the new homes, but that will cause potentially “difficult decisions.”

    The council has faced opposition from residents previously when it has proposed sites for new homes.

    And Cllr Darlington said: “When we are looking for sites, and everybody agrees we need to build more council housing, we do have to build them somewhere.

    “We are trying to be creative when we look at how we do it, but that does mean that they will be built somewhere, and that creates difficult decisions.”

    The scrutiny committee is due to discuss the issue again in February 2021.

    Cllr Darlington said she is “glad it’s coming back in February and we’ll be able to talk about it in more detail then.”

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