Westminster Report

BY Mark Francois, Member of Parliament for Rayleigh and Wickford & Shadow Armed Forces Minister.
So Reform, where will you put all the new houses?
In the local elections on the 7th of May the Reform Party won most of the seats that were up for grabs on Rochford District Council. As a democrat I clearly have to respect the decision of the electorate. However, I am worried that the Council has now changed hands at an extremely sensitive time for the future of the whole Rochford District. Let me explain.
Both the previous Conservative Leader of the Council, Danielle Belton, (who sadly lost her seat by just 26 votes on election night) and I have regularly warned about the threat to the Rochford District and in particular our precious Green Belt, from the Labour Government’s barmy demands that we should build up to 15,000 houses across the district, by 2043.
Both Danielle and I have been staunchly against what Labour are proposing, not least as I regard their top-down housing targets, compiled with the assistance of a soulless computer algorithm in Whitehall, as remote and taking no account of the severe infrastructure pressures that we already face in the District.
At the time of the elections, Rochford District Council was in the middle of creating its new Local Plan. Clearly, we do need to build some new houses, as young people cannot be expected to live at home with their parents forever.
However, crucially, we need to do this in an environmentally and ecologically sustainable way – not least so as not to adversely affect the quality of life of both those who already live here and those who might occupy said new houses, in the future.
Rochford had reached what is known as the “Regulation 18” stage of their Local Plan, where they had identified a number of the issues and challenges that delivering new housing would create. Whilst they had not got to the stage of putting a firm number on it, my understanding is that the Conservative-Lead administration were determined to propose a final number way short of the 15,000 that the Government were demanding.
They were then preparing to produce the next stage of the plan, known as “Regulation 19” which is the crunch point, where you actually decide, firstly, how many houses to accept and, secondly, where exactly you propose they should be built. Based on past experience (from over 20 years ago) this can be a highly controversial decision. Nevertheless, the Conservative-led administration had put a great deal of time and effort into preparing for this.
In contrast, the delivery of the Regulation 19 plan will now fall to a Reform-led administration, which, with a handful of exceptions, comprises completely inexperienced Councillors, with no background whatsoever in preparing the plan.
Moreover, the new Reform Council Leader, apparently actually lives in Braintree and only qualified for election, by virtue of citing a local business address. So, in short, this highly inexperienced team, now have to deliver an extremely complex and highly controversial plan, which has to go to the Government – by Christmas.
The plan has to be consulted on, which means it needs to be published in advance. In practical terms, that means that the Regulation 19 Draft Plan will need to be published by September or at the very latest in October. Once submitted, the plan would then be examined at a public inquiry, chaired by an inspector from the Planning Inspectorate. Again, this can be a highly complex and technical process.
In a related development, there is now a double by-election on 18th June in Rayleigh, for the Rochford District Council seat of Sweyne Park and Grange and the Essex County Council seat of Rayleigh West. Both of these seats were briefly occupied by Reform’s Stuart Prior, who was elected on 7th May, but then resigned just FOUR DAYS later, for “personal reasons”.
This followed his having been revealed in a national newspaper to have a history of posting diabolical social media, including about race. Reform knew this full well – and yet they let him stand for election, nevertheless.
As a result, we now have to have two by-elections (for both vacancies) in a couple of days’ time, which will cost the local Council Taxpayers in this area some £35,000. This is deeply ironic, because it has happened at the behest of a party who claimed on their election literature to be determined to reduce waste in Local Government!
Rayleigh residents may be pleased to hear that Danielle Belton is standing for re-election to Rochford District Council, in the vacancy in the Sweyne Park and Grange Ward. As an extremely effective past Leader of Rochford District Council, I very much hope that local residents will be minded to give her their vote, to get her back onto the Council.
Incidentally, her husband Stuart Belton, who is the Chairman of Rawreth Parish Council, is standing for the County Council seat, and I very much hope he might enjoy resident’s support too.
Danielle was a diligent Council Leader who was determined to protect our precious Green Belt and we could really do with her experience back on the District Council, as they formulate the Regulation 19 plan.
If you also agree with Danielle and want to protect our Green Belt and improve local services, then please do make sure you go out and vote for her (and Stu) on 18th June, so that she can be your strong voice on the Council, once again.
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