Meeting documents

The Committee were first addressed by Mr N Whitsun-Jones, representing the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and Mr J Labrom, a resident of Broadway.  Their comments included:-

·         An early review of the Local Plan was required to look again at the housing figures which the CPRE had disputed at the Planning Inquiry the previous year.

·         Although the implications of not being able to demonstrate a 5 year land supply were huge, it was only the housing policies which were affected.

·         Broadway was a housing hot spot and few applications had local support so the loss of the 5 year land supply could mean more speculative development.

·         The Council had been unable to demonstrate a 5 year land supply for 7 out of 9 years.

The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning advised that the housing figure for the district had been set by formula and it had been found sound by the Planning Inspector.  She confirmed that the Local Plan was due to be reviewed and although the number of completed houses was now increasing, one of the reasons for under delivery was developers not building the houses they had permission for.

The Principal Spatial Planner advised that they were obliged to provide an annual update on the Council’s five year housing land supply as part of the wider Government ambition to scale up housing delivery.  He confirmed that the annualised average of properties to be built was 725 but this had only been achieved in 2 out of the past 9 years and because of this persistent under development, a 20% buffer had to be applied to the target of properties to be built.   He also confirmed that:-

·         the consequence of not being able to demonstrate a five year land supply was that the Council’s housing policies in the Local Plan were deemed to be out of date.  This was not the same as being deleted but they were given reduced weight when determining planning applications. 

·         When Members considered planning applications, they needed to understand whether the adverse impact and demonstrable harm of granting permission would outweigh the benefit of the development.

·         In order to rectify this situation, an early review of the Local Plan and its supporting documents was under way.

·         The Council would need to take a more proactive approach to housing development as it came forward. 

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee asked that all necessary support and resource be given to the Spatial Policy team to help them to demonstrate a five year housing land supply in the near future.  She also questioned how many housing development sites had been granted planning permission in the past 12 months.

In response to questions from Members, the Principal Spatial Planner and the Assistant Director (Economy) confirmed that:

·         In future planning applications, Members would need to assess other impacts of a development such as transport or flood risk.

·         A poorly designed scheme should still be refused planning permission.

·         Members still had a range of policies within the Local Plan which would still apply. 

During a lengthy discussion, Members expressed their concern at the lack of a five year housing land supply for the District and its impact on future planning applications.  It was proposed that a guidance note be provided to Town and Parish Councils to advise them of the impact of the five year housing land supply and housing policy SS2 and the Principal Spatial Planner agreed to provide this.  At the conclusion of the debate, Members confirmed the recommendations of the report.