Coventry ditches plans to increase population by a quarter

Coventry has ditched a long-held ambition to grow its population by a quarter to 400,000 people, the Telegraph can reveal.



New flagship council planning proposals aim for only 12,000 new homes being built in the next 15 years.

It is less than half the 26,500 formerly planned for Coventry under the last government’s controversial regional housebuilding targets.

Council leaders accept their new “core strategy” plan signals a new “realistic” ambition about the city’s potential for economic growth.

In launching it, they re-iterated their pledge to protect all green belt and green land from housing development.

But, under questioning from the Telegraph, they accepted they could give no such long-term commitment – and the coalition government will expect councils to review their housebuilding policies every five years.

Building just 12,000 new homes would continue the current paltry rate of just 850 a year, amid a downturn in housebuilding and the economy.

But furious environmental campaigners say new government guidelines will require councils to build more homes, not less.

The proposed guidelines – the National Planning Policy Framework – would require councils to make planning decisions with a “presumption in favour of development”.

It is despite ruling Labour city councillors pledging to resist developers eyeing up lucrative green land.

Asked if the council’s new dramatic cut in planned new homes meant any hope for a 400,000-strong population by 2025 was now buried, Labour councillor Linda Bigham said: “That was with the economy as it was then. The slowdown in the economy makes a huge difference.

“Should the economy pick up, we can bring forward sites (for development) earlier than planned,” the cabinet member for city development added.

Tracy Darke, the council’s head of planning, said: “We’re taking a step back. We have a city that wants to grow but we’re saying, ‘Let’s go back to basics and review those figures.

“We’ve done that, and are taking a more realistic approach. We’re saying, ‘Let’s continue to expect to build at at least the current rate, and let’s review it in five years’ time.”

Government ministers deny green campaigners’ claims they have U-turned on Conservative pledges while in opposition to protect the green belt.

Campaigners have interpreted their new national policy as a free-for-all for developers.

The government’s own impact assessment specifically states the new proposed rules “could lead to greater development on the green belt”.

The national policy will require councils to identify in new local plans 20 per cent more land for housing.

But Ms Darke said enough land in Coventry had already been allocated to meet that requirement.

She said the new core strategy would no longer require Coventry to build an extra 4,000 new homes on green belt as overspill from neighbouring councils.

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