Does Stratford District need more homes?
In the short-term no. The Stratford District’s Regional Spatial Strategy determined a requirement for just under 300 new houses per year across the whole district until 2026. However all the required homes due for building up to 2011 have already been built. There is therefore currently a moratorium on new builds, which has been recently upheld by the Council in respect of a recent planning appeal. In the longer-term – the Stratford District does not need new homes on this scale, nor located all in one region. Furthermore, the Government has said ‘The eco-towns need to be additional to existing plans with a minimum of 5000-20,000 homes’ albeit that there is currently some confusion as to whether or not the Government will include the 6000 new town houses as part of an increased new build requirement when it forces the region to adopt a new Regional Spatial Strategy.
