Wiltshire Council’s leader will be writing to the government and local MPs to inform them of the “manifest flaws” of the housing land supply system.

This comes after a motion that was submitted by Conservative Cllrs Nick Botterill and Philip Whitehead was approved at the full council meeting on Tuesday, October 15.

It claimed that Wiltshire’s deficiency in housing land supply is not caused by any lack of planning permissions granted by the council but rather the “explicit actions of developers”.

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The chamber was packed for the full council meeting.The chamber was packed for the full council meeting. (Image: Wiltshire Council) Cabinet member for planning Cllr Nick Botterill said that developers had indicated only around half of the 18,000 homes with permission were capable of being delivered over the next three and a half years.

He said: “The developers who don’t build out the sites they themselves have sought planning permission for, then get to build the sites which have not been allocated for housing.”

Wiltshire Council’s leader Richard Clewer agreed: “There is no control in this process to ensure that developers build the houses that are in a plan.

“We’ve just sent the local plan to an inspector, if that’s approved, I expect developers to build what’s in the blasted plan.

“Not mess around to get permissions in other places.”

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According to Cllr Clewer, this leads to planning decisions made by appeal and inspectorate, producing “cookie-cutter” developments.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats on Wiltshire Council, Ian Thorn, said: “We find ourselves where we are thanks to decades of a system that works against communities and works in favour of house builders, and whether we can get government to change that, regardless of party-political persuasion, of course, remains to be seen.”

He suggested an amendment that would call for legislation to compel developers to build consented plots within a set timescale, but Cllr Clewer argued that building every approved development within a short time frame was not the solution.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Ruth Hopkinson claimed: “The reason we’ve been going around in circles, down various rabbit holes, has absolutely nothing to do with the smooth running of this council.

“It has nothing to do with what is in the best interests of our constituents.

“It has got to do with party politics and people knowing that there is an election coming up next year which means that nonsense motions have been put forward that don’t actually benefit anybody.”

Conservative Cllr Philip Whitehead disagreed, describing the housing land supply issue as “huge”.

He said: “It is our job to challenge it, we’ve got to keep challenging it.”

In total, 59 councillors voted in approval of the motion, with one abstention and one vote against it.