The difficulties of building new properties in Slough have been revealed with the lack of available space in the town hampering future developments.

Planning Policy Lead Officer Paul Stimpson was scrutinised by a panel of Councillors on Tuesday evening as he updated the members on the status of the plan to keep up with the towns demand for housing.

One of the main issues hampering development of the planned 912 new homes annually in Slough is the lack of space available to developers. It was revealed previously in the Issues and Options consultations that there was ‘no reasonable spatial options or combination of options’ that would allow Slough to meet the housing and employment need.

Paul Stimpson said: “The main problem we’ve got is a complete shortage of land for development. We’re just so full up it’s extremely difficult to do.”

A way in which the Council are proposing to meet Slough’s housing demands are by promoting an extension of the strategy into the South Bucks District.

A joint study between Slough Council, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council and South Bucks District Council is currently being undertaken to explore the options for each authority to meet their own needs. The final report will be released in February.

Further plans to develop former factory sites to build new housing was also on the agenda. The former Horlicks factory in the town centre has been purchased by property developer Berkeley Homes and the former Akzo Nobel has been earmarked for future development, although the status of this site remains unclear.

Speaking on the Azko Nobel site, Mr Stimpson said: “Azko Nobel has been on the market for some time now and they haven’t said who they have sold to. We need to know who we are negotiating with and we need to bring in partners to try and bring that all together.”