Politics has rarely been more volatile or interesting than right now. If you thought you were lucky to be alive at the same time David Bowie was, that’s small fry compared to the political epoch currently being forged.

Brexit may seem all about Westminster and Brussels, but one of the primary concerns of people, whether they voted to leave or remain, is housing.

Local politicians are now talking about national government’s housing targets and what they mean for the wider Watford area. We have a target of around 750 homes a year for the next ten to fifteen years.

The Observer’s editorial last week noted that many are complaining that this is too much for Watford, already densely populated. One member of the council’s planning committee commented: “West Watford will change beyond all recognition and probably not for the better.”

Makes you think.

What you’ve not been reading about in the press or on leaflets is where Watford has reached on meeting the targets and that’s newsworthy indeed. Between November 2017 and October 2018, the council’s planning committee approved 2,221 new properties to be built in our town.

With a national government target of 750 per year, Watford has approved almost three times the required new home build in a single year. Or, you could look at it that it’s already hit the target for 2019, 2020 and 2021!

The question for us all is whether we believe that the Government will stop demanding new homes when we reach the target – at this rate in about five years rather than fifteen. I suspect not.

Why are we spending so much time complaining about the targets, when it seems that we should be calling a halt on rubber stamping development after development when we don’t need to be building at this pace?

  • Matt Turmaine is a Labour councillor for Holywell