Cheshire looking at ‘turbocharging’ housing delivery with devo powers

Cheshire West and Chester Leader Cllr Louise Gittins said increased local powers from Whitehall could help the sub region address its need for social and council housing in particular.

“We need to build, build, baby, build,” Gittins told Place North West at Labour Party conference on Monday, echoing the catchphrase of housing secretary Steve Reed.

She had been spotted wearing a red hat with the phrase emblazoned on it throughout Sunday and while the hat itself was absent on Monday, it was clear the ambition was still there.

“We want to turbocharge our housing delivery,” she said, adding that devolution may present the opportunity to look at housing with a wider spatial framework lens.

Gittins also celebrated the announcement that Adlington in Cheshire East had earned a recommendation from the New Towns Taskforce.

• READ MORE: New towns in Manchester and Cheshire East make govt shortlist

With politics in Cheshire moving at pace when it comes to devolution – Cheshire East, CWAC, and Warrington had all given the scheme the nod last week – she did take a moment to admit that it had not been completely smooth sailing.

Acknowledging that a devolution deal for Cheshire and Warrington had “squeaked by” due to concerns over rural voices being lost, she argued that the combined authority would work to ensure everyone had a place at the table.

“We have actually got a whole strand on rural,” she told Place. “We’re going to have it baked into our devolution deal and, actually, government is really interested in it.”

She added that the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs had been up to visit and discuss how it could work best with the future combined authority.

One of the ways Gittins envisions the devolved Cheshire and Warrington helping those living in the countryside is by ensuring that they have access to public transport services. It also means going out and talking with all of the area’s stakeholders.

“I was speaking to a young woman today who was from a rural community, and she came and said, ‘What is devolution going to do for us in the rural areas?’”, Gittins recalled.

“So we need to make sure that our devolution deal is as an inclusive as we can make it, and that includes involving rural businesses,” she continued.

“Our business advisory board is combined, not just the big businesses, but SMEs as well. We’re hoping that we’ll do something different, and I suppose the details will be coming out at a later stage.”

The need for collaboration has been the big takeaway for Gittins from the devolution process thus far.

“We’ve encouraged the community and voluntary sector to be part of it, as well as business, health, colleges, the University in Chester,” she said.

“We very much feel that it has to be a partnership approach, and I think by doing that, we’re not going to have people who feel they’re sort of been let down. So that’s probably the biggest thing for us.”

She added: “We’ve always worked really well as the sub region, but now we’re turbocharging it so that everyone feels that they’re contributing. So for example, for the first year without Mayor, we will be able to have some money, so how are we going to spend it? We’re working with all of those [stakeholders] to think about ways that we can make an impact within that first year, so that everyone feels their ideas are feeding into it.”