Consultation on future of housebuilding around Leamington, Kenilworth and Warwick to be debated

A draft consultation document on the location and number of new homes to be built in the area over the next 15 years will be discussed in public for the first time, after an earlier debate was postponed.

Warwick District Council’s executive committee had been due to discuss the document in early February, but a working party of councillors had not seen the document.

The survey gives people three options on the direction of housebuilding until 2026, with a choice of 250, 500 or 800 new homes per year - effectively 3,750, 7,500 or 12,000 houses and flats.

The resulting ‘local plan’ will replace scrapped proposals to build up to 12,000 homes as part of the regional spatial strategies abolished by the coalition Government.

The unpopular plan had earmarked land between Whitnash, Warwick Gates and Bishops Tachbrook for thousands of homes, with hundreds pencilled in between Cubbington and Lillington and on green belt land near Kenilworth.

In the new paper, option one - which would create some 800 new homes each year - is described as “the most realistic maximum level” of new development.

Both it and a second option would create greater pressure on roads and schools, but officers say money from development could be spent on attracting and creating new jobs, building affordable homes and schools, and improving roads, sports and health services.

The third option would allow for some 250 new homes each year, but officers say this would limit chances for businesses to grow and move here and mean less investment. The paper adds: “To allow no more would be contrary to the Government’s aims to grow the economy.”