End 'relentless development' - seven Wealden parishes unite

Chairs of Heathfield, East Hoathly, Chiddingly, Horam, Laughton and Warbleton parishes have co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Michael Gove. They note from 2017-2019 the requirement for new houses for Wealden went up from 499 to 1,236, an increase of 226%.

The parishes say: “Having been unable to keep up with increasing demands from the ministry, our District has to operate under the presumption in favour of development which means it loses appeals against its own planning decisions. It cannot deliver its objectively assessed local housing needs or place development in sustainable locations. We witness a ‘free for all’ on rich, bio-diverse land, distant from everyday facilities and with no expectation that public transport or cycling can provide a viable alternative to cars.”

They query old projection data and say Wealden is penalised more than the average of all districts in England.

And they urge Gove to re-think the current ‘punitive algorithm’ for determining housing needs which results in the council having to approve building on green fields in unsustainable locations with no access to transport, schools, work and healthcare.

“Instead we believe the District should be able to assess its housing needs based on objectively determined local factors.”

The parishes point out that the ‘affordability factor’ penalises many districts and especially Wealden which has more retired residents than anywhere else with lower earnings than the English average. And they note 64 per cent of its area (SSSI- Pevensey Levels and AONB - north) cannot be developed meaning the Low Weald (Hailsham and Polegate areas) must bear most of the so called ‘housing needs’ of the 1,221 houses per year.

They note government continues to use 2014 ONS data which showed between 2021 and 2031, 212,739 households are needed each year for the whole of England. However, they say, the more accurate data for 2018 was 1611,048 a year, a reduction of 24%. Wealden’s share was 872 households per year (ONS 2014) compared with 598 from the 2018 projection, a bigger reduction of 31%.