Monitoring Medway: 2023 Edition
Looking at the latest data to see how Medway has changed in the past year
In December Medway Council published its annual Monitoring Report. It’s a lengthy read, so like last year, we’re going through it to find all of the essential data we can learn from it. Unhelpfully, the report uses Indices of Deprivation data from 2019, which we have written about before here, and the next release is expected late in 2025, so you can look forward to that uplifting piece in your future.
Medway’s Monitoring Report is produced annually and overviews the development of Medway through economic, social, and environmental data. The latest report presents information for the period April 2022 to March 2023. It is predominantly a document about progress towards meeting the development and regeneration of Medway.
Inevitably, the Local Plan features prominently. Front and centre of this is Medway’s Strategic Transport Assessment (STA) involves testing future scenarios in a traffic model to support the preparation of the new Local Plan. It has engaged with National Highways, Kent County Council and neighbouring local planning authorities and will be published in due course. You can look forward to a reflection of the STA in the future, knowing that your paid subscriptions help make it happen.
The first area in the Monitoring Report to be covered is regarding Housing Delivery. However, an update has not been published due to the delay in government data releases. As such, the information is the same as 2022. We’re off to a great start here.
The current Standard Method formula for calculating Local Housing Need indicates a need for 1,667 homes a year in Medway. For 2022/23, we were 717 dwellings below the requirement. 56% of all residential completions were on previously developed land (PDL), slightly undermining the argument that our countryside is being concreted over. With Medway being on track to be tens of thousands of properties in deficit, it would appear that future home ownership for the editor of this mighty organ is unlikely.
“The council continues to promote Medway as a successful and attractive place in which to live, work, learn and visit.” - Medway Monitoring Report 2023
Is it though? Let’s go good news truffle hunting.
Live
Chatham Town Centre Regeneration
The Paddock redevelopment will reportedly benefit from increased biodiversity with a diverse range of planting. Will this biodiversity be maintained once the Paddock is completed? Will the new central open space welcome people wanting to stop and sit?
The Brook Theatre received additional Levelling up Funding of £6.5m. However, it remains unclear when the work will be completed and the theatre reopened following recent delays. Keep your diary open and be flexible.
“Plans are being reviewed for the former Debenhams store.” The word reviewed is doing a lot of heavy lifting. If the status of Mountbatten House is a guide, then the former Debenhams site has a future as a place that urban explorers pass down to future generations.
“The diversification of the first floor in the Pentagon Centre” is one way to phrase we emptied it out not knowing we would have a large Wilko store to fill. This publication is open-minded about the new Innovation Hub and looks forward to reports on it reaching full occupancy.
Medway City Estate Connectivity Improvement Measures
“This project to improve movement to, from and within Medway City Estate is now complete”, something which might come as a surprise to those trying to move to, from and within Medway City Estate.
Britton Farm – Learning, Skills, and Employment Hub
This is now open, run by Medway Adult Education (MAE) and slowly being lost behind a large flat complex being built on the site of the old supermarket car park by (checks notes) the Medway Development Company.
Chatham Waters
In Gillingham, where work is complete on 392 flats, many/most/nearly all of the retail units continue to be empty. This sadly denies us the café culture watching the slow end of the Chatham Docks as the council is unable to stop Peel Waters from turning it into future developments, even if they wanted to.
Rochester
“Work has progressed well to construct new buildings and to convert the former St Bartholomew’s Hospital into 155 dwellings and an 88sq.m community space; this is expected to be completed by 2025.” We certainly do have different understandings of ‘progressed well’ and it’s important to understand that expected to be completed, and actually completed, are quite different. As always, we will be delighted to be wrong.
Strood
I’m sure we will write about Strood at some point, just around the same time that Medway Council does.
Hoo Peninsula
“Much land is being promoted through the Local Plan” as the council continues to approve planning applications on greenfield land to upset all the residents currently living in new builds next door.
New developments
In 2022/23, 1,238 planning applications were determined. 51 of these were Major (Large-scale major developments - where the number of residential units to be constructed is 200 or more or 1,000 square metres of industrial, commercial, or retail floor space.). Both numbers are down on last year.
Property prices
“Despite a 1.8% fall in house prices between March 2019 and March 2020, over the last 5 years, the average cost of buying a home in Medway has risen by over 23%.” Cool. The average price of property in Medway is now £300,713.
Housing affordability
“The average property in Medway costs just over eight and a half times the average annual salary.” This seems a lot, but remains more affordable, or to be precise, less unaffordable, than the rest of Kent. With a significant number of residents unable to afford to buy their own homes, the council’s target of at least 25% of new builds being affordable is important.
“The number of affordable completions for the last year was 18% of all gross completions.” Oh.
New Homes Bonus
This is a grant paid by central government to support the building of new homes, based on extra council tax revenue, with additional payments for affordable houses. In 2022/23, this was £1.98m. You might wonder whether or not that is a big number. “The council's Medium Term Financial Outlook report estimates the Labour-run administration will face a £38.7m budget gap in 2024/25.” So, not so much.
Green space improvements
Seven play areas were improved across Medway including Chatham, Gillingham, Lordswood, Rainham, Strood, Walderslade and Wigmore. These projects were funded by a mixture of capital, revenue, and Section 106 contributions. The Green Flag Award scheme recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, and Medway retained 8 awards for its Green Flag sites. Berengrave Local Nature Reserve, which I had never heard of before (how? - Ed), is prone to flooding and has had work completed to improve accessibility and improve the management of wildlife. Maybe a Local Authority News field trip is in order to take a look.
Air Quality
Medway has entered the culture wars by declaring four Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) - Central Medway, the High Street in Rainham, Pier Road in Gillingham, and Four Elms Hill in Chattenden. Apparently, snowflakes can’t handle adult-onset asthma.
“Work on the ULEV feasibility study is expected to start in the autumn of 2023.” Don’t threaten us with a good time. This exciting development would look at the practicalities of switching taxis and private hire vehicles to low-emission vehicles.
Climate Change
Medway Council declared a climate emergency in April 2019. Between May 2022 and July 2022, a Climate Change Action Plan survey was released to find out residents’ thoughts on climate change in Medway. And then… Maybe there will be some progress by next year.
Fuel Poverty
Living in fuel poverty is defined as living in a home which cannot be kept warm at a reasonable cost. A lower percentage of households are in fuel poverty in Medway at 9.5%, compared to Kent at 9.7%
“The percentage of households living in fuel poverty is expected to rise in forthcoming years due to the unprecedented increase in fuel prices and the cost-of-living crisis.“ Well.
Life expectancy
In Medway, life expectancy has risen marginally, but it is consistently lower than the average in England. No new data was available in 2023. “An update will be published in the next Authority Monitoring Report 2023/24.” See you next year for that.
Work
The Job Seekers Allowance and Universal Credit claimant rate stood at 3.8% in April 2023. This is above the rate for Kent and the southeast at 6,780 claimants. The employment rate has increased to 81.9% and stands at a five-year high. It is also above the southeast rate. Hurrah.
There continues to be a need to develop and maintain Medway’s town centres. “None of the settlements in Medway are regional shopping destinations” is quite the understatement. The majority of new businesses in the town centres this year were hot food takeaways.
There has been a steady loss of drinking establishments in Medway. 2022/23 saw the loss of the upper floors of two public houses to residential use, however the commercial use was retained on the ground floor. A brand new micropub in Rochester High Street called Wolfe and Castle was opened, providing craft beers and Kentish cider, but only up to 7pm, following ‘concerns’ from ‘residents’.
There was a cargo tonnage increase at Medway Ports, back up to pre-covid levels. The majority of cargo imported is liquified gas.
Learn
Several schools have submitted and had approved planning applications to improve and upgrade their buildings and facilities. Just don’t ask about RAAC.
No GCSE attainment data was included for 2023, so (shrug emoji).
Visit
Medway Tunnel
Nearly £5m was secured from the Department for Transport to replace and upgrade the Medway Tunnel, which the council shrewdly bought for just £1 in 2008. We estimate that the tunnel has increased in value to at least £1.15.
School Streets
£486,418, was approved by Active Travel England in March 2023, to help facilitate the introduction of a series of School Streets sites during the 2023/24 academic year. Local resident Katie Tolhurst (surely no relation?) was a voice of the people: “I think this is an absolutely ridiculous plan and as a resident I am 100% against it.”
Railway Stations
Medway has seven train stations within the borough, which is the entirety of the insight offered by the Monitoring Report.
Thanks for joining us for this year’s look into Medway’s Monitoring report. Be sure to come back next year to see if a Labour administration managed to do anything with the looming threat of bankruptcy on the horizon.
Footnotes
Steven Keevil is excited about a new creative newsletter project from Medwayish. We’re eager to speak to Medway writers, poets, photographers, filmmakers and musicians eager to share their work for a new project. Please email medwayish@gmail.com if you’d be interested in finding out more.
Steven co-founded The Political Medway and still manages to watch hundreds of films a year. He highly recommends Poor Things.
You should definitely visit Berengrave Nature Reserve (maybe on one of the volunteer task days?)! To be fair, it's a wet woodland site, so the "prone to flooding" bit is more a feature than a bug - the ecology is adapted to this. The new improvements are mostly useful (though were quite scary going in - even knowing it'll recover, it can be a shock to see huge chunks of wet meadow and woodland churned up to put a new path in), although some of the layout is a bit odd (a path basically runs into a pond, and then there is a fence that blocks access to a bench...). Biodiversity management is now mostly run by Medway Norse out of Riverside and so that's more proactive than it's been in about a decade, and the volunteer group does a session every 4 months on things like removing invasive species, keeping paths accessible and opening up some areas to improve light and plant diversity. If people would just stop releasing their unwanted goldfish into the big pond we might even make some progress with the aquatic biodiversity...
A good analysis and there is much to read. Am pleased that the lack of seating in the Paddock has been recognised. It's also apparently very low. We must hope this space retains its welcome feel, including for older and less mobile people, rather than being "a rush through place".