SDC’s Bag Man?

In Nov 15 SDC made a tender for land at Otterpool Lane, Sellindge. In Dec 15 SDC were successful with there £5.23 million pound bid. Now we know why SDC bought the land.

In 2015 the Policy Exchange (a right wing Tory Think Tank)  wrote a 38 page document about Garden Villages. The paper sets out a proposal for giving local authorities under the New Towns Act, powers to create new garden villages – and capture the land value uplift to pay for it in a way they cannot currently – to meet their local housing needs.

In Nov & Dec 15 this was still only a proposal. In the March Budget, The Chancellor announced that Local Authorities can explore the concept of a Garden Village.

Now what we find strange is how SDC came to buy the land. Now we know. A plausible explanation is that Damian Collins MP (Below)

was the bag man who carried the news to SDC that the Policy Proposal would become concrete in the Budget and so suggested to SDC to buy the land. Of course another plausible explanation is that SDC CEO, Alistair Stewart or Cllr David “Drury” Monk (below), have a hotline to No 10.

It was always Tory led SDC’s intention to build on the Land, which was once a front-line airfield during the Second World War. There may well be other plausible explanations as to how SDC came to know about a policy proposal being taken up by the Chancellor, prior to his announcement in the March budget, but there certainly doesn’t seem to be a better explanation than Damien Collins MP being the bag man for SDC.

If you can think of any other plausible explanations please do let us know.

Shepwayvox