In the emailed autumn edition of the Courtier I alerted residents to the Governments latest proposals on house building targets, set for councils across the country. The South East of England is being penalised with housing building targets set much higher than the independent Office of National statistics (ONS) says is required.

The ONS states the borough’s need for housing is just 215 homes per annum yet the Government has set Epsom and Ewell a target of 600+ per year up to 2038, which has been calculated using a formulae which gives weight to affordability of housing in the calculation. It’s another one of the infamous Government algorithms which certainly did not work in the case of school examinations.

Our borough does not have the capacity to build over 600+ homes a year up to 2038, because of the lack of brown field sites and with over 42% green belt land, and the Borough Council has written to the Secretary of State for Housing to say so.

As I write these notes in Late November there is a suggestion in the national press that the public outcry in the South East is causing a Government re-think its targets and shift more of the house building requirement to the Midlands, the North and London where there is both the need for more housing and, in many areas, the brown field sites.

However we cannot guarantee that will be the case so if you too are concerned, please write to Chris Grayling MP calling on him to get his Government to change the targets. Chris Grayling can be contacted at chris.grayling.mp@parliament.uk or c/o 212 Barnett Wood Lane Ashtead KT21 2DB