Cotswold council chiefs are planning to write to the Government over "moronic" housing targets as speculative developers set their sights on greenfield sites.
Cotswold District Council is just one of numerous local authorities now obliged to earmark additional land for the construction of thousands of new homes every year.
Revised calculations by the Government for determining local housing quotas have resulted in a significant increase for Cotswold District Council, with figures more than doubling.
The Cotswolds are facing a critical shortage of affordable housing, which is essential for retaining the district's younger population.
But there is concern among council leaders that developers might be granted permission to construct inappropriate types of housing in areas lacking necessary infrastructure or services.
Council leader Mike Evemy (LD, Siddington and Cerney Rural) said he intends to write to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to explain the unique situation faced by the Cotswold District.
He highlighted that around 80% of the district is encompassed by the Cotswold National Landscape, the largest area of its kind in England and Wales, celebrated for its outstanding natural beauty and distinctive character.
"In December 2024, new government housing targets were imposed on this district," he said.
"This more than doubles the number of new houses we're required to build every year. A district where 80% of the land, 790 square miles, is designated national landscape.
"This is the largest expanse of national landscape out of 46 areas of natural beauty in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Now we have a housing target of 1,036 new homes per year up from 420."
Mr Evemy explained that this significant increase has resulted in the district lacking a five-year housing land supply. The council finds itself in a precarious position with only 1.8 years' worth of land available, a sharp decline from the seven-plus years they had under previous arrangements.
"But while the goalposts have been moved entirely for us, they've been simultaneously made wider for developers," he remarked. He noted an uptick in speculative planning applications for new homes on greenfield sites due to the council's situation.
Mr Evemy pointed out that the current housing policies outlined in the local plan, which serves as the development blueprint for the district, are ineffective when faced with these applications because of the housing shortfall.
"As it stands, the new targets are set to bring piecemeal housing development in the District," he said. "Ticking off the targets but the houses may be built in the wrong places and without the necessary infrastructure."
He plans to ask Ms Rayner whether the doubling of the district's housing target is proportionate.
Former council leader Joe Harris (LD, St Michael's) has slammed the Government's housing targets as "moronic" and criticised the position it has placed Cotswold District in. He expressed gratitude towards council officers for their dedication to the local plan.
"They've been through hell over the past few years working on the revised local plan and all the stuff with Moreton," he remarked. "It's been really difficult.
"The Government has put us in an impossible position. We are being asked to sign off a lot of money, a lot of spending, a lot of work on a local plan that might not actually see the light of day because they are going to scrap us as a local authority.
"Their planning changes have rendered our local plan, our neighbourhood plans, if not meaningless, totally undermined them.
"That is an insult to the hard work we have done as a local authority and our local communities who have worked on neighbourhood plans."
Cllr Harris was incredulous at the Labour Government's housing targets when they were announced in December. "They just seemed so moronic," he said.
"They are moronic in our context because 80% of our district is an area of outstanding natural beauty.
"They've doubled our target, so that means a thousand homes a year, predominantly going in areas that are in the 20 per cent not in the area of outstanding natural beauty.
"It's crazy. It is madness and it has definitely been done on a spreadsheet by civil servants somewhere, I hope. Because no politician could put their name to this, quite frankly."
