The council will not do ‘more than its bit’ when it comes to building homes in Wokingham borough, the council leader has claimed.

This comes after councillor Julian McGhee-Sumner asked residents for their support in demanding fewer homes are allocated to the area by the government.

When quizzed about housing numbers by Cllr Gary Cowan, Cllr McGhee-Sumner said: “We are building too many, we’ve got more than an 11-year land supply.

“We are doing our bit but we are not going to do more than our bit. We are not going to do more than Reading, Bracknell or West Berkshire.”

Earlier this week it was announced the government is putting £750,000 towards understanding the possibility of building 15,000 homes in Grazeley.

A joint bid from Wokingham Borough Council, West Berkshire Council and Reading Borough Council means the homes could go up at the currently undeveloped site if it is found to be suitable for building.

But speaking to the News, Cllr McGhee-Sumner said the plans were “not feasible” when previously explored.

He reinforced this at a meeting of the council’s cabinet on Thursday, March 28, saying the quarter-of-a-million-pound grant “makes no compulsion on us”.

The leader added: “We are going to build less houses than we our building and we have our MPs support on that.”

Residents have been up in arms over the rate of house building over the last two years with more than 8,000 already built or set to be built under housing demands placed on the council.

Thousands have signed petitions bemoaning developments in Barkham and in Shinfield but the leader hopes to present a united front with residents after the local elections in May.

In front of all the borough councillors, he disclosed plans to send out a consultation paper to all residents asking if they were happy with government imposed housing numbers, to which recipients can reply with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

The consultation is expected to cost the council up to £30,000.