Tory delays leave the door open to property speculators

Fourteen years ago Tony Blair's Labour government passed new laws creating two classes of councillor. Those who sat on the Council's cabinet and directed the officers and ordinary ward councillors who look after the interests of their area. At present in Rugby the ruling tory group only allows its own members to hold cabinet positions - see http://rugbylibdems.org.uk/en/article/2014/974060/rugby-cabinet-or-council . One advantage of the system is that when things go wrong it is clear who should shoulder the responsibility.

In order to escape from Eric Pickles' penalties for slack local authorities (see http://rugbylibdems.org.uk/en/article/2014/975534/eric-pickles-threat-to-rugby-s-green-fields ) a council must have three things:

• an up-to-date assessment of the housing need in its area,
• a local plan, and
• the ability to demonstrate it has a five year supply of land for housing.

Rugby Borough Council has been working on a new assessment of its housing needs. In July it said that the Council's next annual statement of its five year land supply will be published in December 2014. The Council's forward plan for decisions to be taken said that a report on "Developing Sub Regional Planning Policy and addressing housing need in Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership" would be brought to the Council meeting this evening (9 December 2014). However the Council's cabinet (which only has conservative councillors) has failed to put the report on the agenda for the meeting.

All the time the Council lacks an up to date assessment of its housing needs a property developer can "game" Eric Pickles rules and put in a planning application for any green field that takes their fancy.