Concerns mount over homes plan

8:20pm Tuesday 13th January 2009

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Bradford Council has objected to the thousands of new homes it could be required to build on top of the 50,000 the Government has already said the district needs.

As a “regional city” Bradford could be hit by the 35 per cent increase in homes suggested in a blueprint for development by the Government.

The Council believes the 50,000 new homes already demanded in the Regional Spatial Strategy was too much.

But authorities are being consulted on the changes, which could see the figure of 22,260 new homes a year in Yorkshire and Humber, leap to 30,000.

A meeting of the Council’s executive yesterday resolved to submit its formal response to Yorkshire and Humber Assembly, which stated it was not “possible or desirable to consider revised and additional growth figures at this stage”.

During the meeting Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, the Council’s executive member for environment and culture, said: “It is a step too far, it is too soon and the time is not quite right to be making a judgement on how many extra housing we will need in the distant future.”

It has been proposed some of the housing planned for North Yorkshire and the Humber region will now be built in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire due to environmental pressures in North Yorkshire and a declining demand for housing in the Humber.

Meanwhile, members of Bradford Council’s executive have also approved spending £3.1 million to develop a new combined library and community centre in Haworth for consideration as part of the capital investment plan.