Setting out where new homes and communities will be built in the borough to satisfy government housing targets is a crucial part of the council’s role.

And, in order to ensure we are on track for delivering the thousands of homes we have been allocated, we need to demonstrate we have a five-year supply of housing land.

This doesn’t just mean giving planning permission for housebuilding to take place, or making land available, work needs to be underway on site for it to count towards the five-year land supply figure.

Unfortunately in recent years, although planning permission has been granted to sufficient sites, building has not been swift enough and this has left us vulnerable to unwanted and speculative development.

Readers may recall one such development in Wroughton a couple of years ago where the council’s planning committee rejected a 103-home development on land to the east of Marlborough Road, only to have the decision overturned by the Secretary of State because we did not have a credible five-year housing supply.

This is incredibly frustrating because local communities and the council are being penalised for a situation which is out of their control.

In a bid to get the odds much more back in our favour, we have made significant progress over the last 12 months in refreshing our local plan, which sets out how many homes we need to build up to 2036.

The good news is that our housing targets have been reduced and that means we have a far better chance of achieving a deliverable five-year housing supply.

Many of the 20,450 homes that need to be built are already accounted for within large developments such as Wichelstowe, the New Eastern Villages and at Kingsdown.

And we have secured more than £100m from the Government to put the required road infrastructure in place before the homes are built.

But these major sites alone will not get us to our overall housing target and we have added further urban housing sites to the draft local plan such as the former Stratton Education Centre and the former Windmill Hill School.

A number of other sites have also been identified for future housing growth outside of the Swindon urban area in Highworth, Wroughton and other Swindon villages. Focusing on a number of smaller sites, instead of large-scale developments is likely to encourage an increase in housebuilding in the short-term which will help us achieve our five-year housing supply.

The six-week consultation on the draft local plan, which will be submitted for examination next year, is open until 31 January 2020 and further details can be found at: swindon.gov.uk/localplan

You can send in your comments via: swindon-consult.objective.co.uk/portal/ or by emailing: forwardplanning@swindon.gov.uk