Slough’s Labour Council’s housing failures: Lib Dems Demand Better for Slough

Robert Plimmer, Chair of Slough Lib Dems, is proposing ways to make progress in dealing with Slough's housing crisis.

The severe housing shortage in Slough has many causes, including the long-standing Tory policies that have reduced the stock of social housing available, and the actions of Slough Labour party.

Robert Plimmer attended Slough Borough Council's recent Planning Committee meeting to object to the planning application for the conversion of the redundant office block at 163 Bath Road into 106 apartments. The plans approved by Slough's Labour and Tory councillors do not offer a single flat for social housing to key-workers or to local residents under shared-ownership schemes.

Robert Plimmer highlighted the issues in letters to the local papers He asked: "Once this development of 106 apartments is completed and marketed by local estate agents as 'affordable buy-to-let investment opportunities', then how can these 106 apartments claim to satisfy local housing needs?"

Robert also asked the Planning Committee to take action to increase the chances of these houses meeting local housing needs. He proposed a way to reduce the viability of these flats being rented out as 'Airbnb' online rentals and the 'weekday lodgers' of tenants staying during weekday nights whilst visiting and working in the Slough area.

Read Robert Plimmer's full letter published in the Slough Express on 25 Jan: Why no social housing at 106-home development?