Our position on House Building Targets

This is the third of three posts outlining the position of Reform UK Godalming and Ash branch on issues relevant to the May 7th local elections.

The Liberal Democrats say they want to “balance environmental protection with the need to provide homes.” The Tories when in power set extremely high targets for house building in Waverley and Guildford, and Labour has all but doubled them. If implemented, these will represent an increase in population in Waverley borough by more than 50 per cent in 20 years, and in Guildford by more than 30 per cent. There are already significant push-backs by local people against more new housing in Normandy and Tongham. In Waverley, this is made worse by around 80 per cent of the land area being either green belt or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Reform is the party of common sense. We recognize that social engineering on this kind of scale will ruin the character of our beautiful county, and impoverish the lives of local people. We are opposed to developments that are not in keeping with the character of the area, and we will do everything in our power to prevent them. If large new housing developments are needed, they should be on brownfield sites, not in places like rural Surrey.