Every council faces challenges in living up to expectations, particularly given the many constraints that are outside their control. And every new council inherits policies and decisions that challenge their own political beliefs. Mid Suffolk District Council, the first Green council in the UK, is no different.
Being the first, there are myths about what a Green Party majority council (or government) might do. So this article sets out Mid Suffolk’s approach to improving housing and explains how a Green council manages owning what might seem a controversial Freeport site.
The challenge of improving housing
I want to start by looking at housing because it is so key to the social and environmental problems that we face. It is also so frustrating that many of the barriers are not properly understood. Planning is a case in point as the council must work within existing regulations.
The councillors would like to mandate that all new builds should have solar panels as standard, but we have no powers to do this.
There is a view that environmental and planning protections are the major factor stopping house building. This is not true. In fact, there are already many sites which are being sat on or have outline planning permission which developers are not building on. For the developer, this is not seen this as economical at the moment.
The current Labour government has increased Mid Suffolk’s housing target by 37%. Our response is to work with our communities to create a local planning framework and to support the creation of neighbourhood plans. This brings greater assurance that the required houses will be built while taking into account local priorities such as the exact locations for housing, the affordable housing mix, the tenure types and the desired biodiversity requirements. This is a more nuanced approach than just focusing on housing targets and councillors believe more likely and very importantly to receive community buy in.
Building for local families
Mid Suffolk would like to build more council houses for local families. However, many councils are restricted in doing this because of the significant historic housing debt. We inherited a debt of over £115mn. Currently 25% of council rents are being spent just to service the debt. Therefore, this money is not being spent on our housing.
Unless the government intervenes to sort out the financial status of council housing, it’s unlikely that this situation will improve. Mid Suffolk has joined forces with more than 100 other councils in England to call for the government to secure the future of council housing. Nonetheless the council are still extremely focused on improving our existing council housing and are investing over £10mn in improvements this year for items such as roofing, kitchens and bathrooms. The scheduling of this work is based on a detailed exercise we have recently completed to assess the condition of every single council house in Mid Suffolk.
A core priority for the council and the Green Party is to improve the insulation of our homes. This reduces costs for householders, reduces energy use and keeps people warmer. We are currently investing over £2mn in our Cosy Homes scheme for the private sector where we offer a free assessment and installation service while ensuring the right technical standards are applied to any installation work. A further £2mn is being invested to create energy efficient council homes.
What about the Freeport?
Mid Suffolk District Council is the owner of Gateway 14, a business, innovation and logistics park on the edge of Stowmarket, and which is part of Freeport East. Green Party politicians and councillors are often asked about this, as national policy does not favour the creation of tax havens for businesses.
We have always taken the view that this is something we have inherited. More importantly councillors recognise the need to focus on making Gateway 14 as sustainable as possible so as to ensure the potential benefits are delivered for the local community.
Sustainability is evidenced via the high energy-efficient quality of the buildings and the overall landscaping. For example, over 15,000 new trees have now been planted at Gateway 14.
Improving employment opportunities
The profits that the council will make from Gateway 14 are a significant element of our medium-term plan to spend over £80mn in the district over the next few years. The Range which is the first business operating at Gateway 14 already employs over 600 people. 200 of these are from the local area and most had been unemployed for over 2 months.
Two sustainable building companies Bauder and Assan Panels have been attracted to Gateway 14 in the last 18 months. This will bring a further 100 jobs to the area.
Supporting skills and innovation
A significant grant-funded investment is being made in a purpose-built Skills and Innovation Centre. The three-storey, state-of-the-art centre will help address the region’s skills gap and have a particular focus on digital, AI and green skills.
The project, announced in March, will cost £18.8mn of which £16.66mn is funded by Freeport East and the remainder by Mid Suffolk. The centre will offer office space for high growth start-ups and will be used for training, working in partnership with the Universities of Suffolk and Essex, West Suffolk College, Suffolk New College and Colchester Institute.
The benefits to the community from the Gateway 14 Freeport site are compelling. This raises an obvious question as to whether this has changed the Green Party’s view about Freeports. My personal opinion is that I’m definitely not in favour of Freeports as a general policy as you have to look at the entire economic picture including tax implications, not just one location. However, that doesn’t mean that an individual site can’t be highly successful.
What does the future hold?
A significant challenge in achieving many of our objectives requires working closely with various stakeholders, and particularly our residents.
As a result of the planned Local Government reforms Mid Suffolk District Council may not exist in a few years’ time. Councillors are concerned that these changes will reduce the local connection of councils to their communities, diluting strong local knowledge and a real understanding of important details.
Meanwhile this Green administration continues to be focused on working hard for our residents to get things done. As the first Green majority council in the UK, Mid Suffolk councillors are acutely aware that the eyes of the nation, as well as our residents, are watching our success.
Feedback is always welcome and the easiest way is via Mid Suffolk District Council’s feedback page. My previous article looked at the work of the council in regard of recycling, rewilding and regeneration.
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