Meeting documents

Mr B Hartley of East Coker Parish Council said it was almost 1 year since SSDC had failed to demonstrate a 5 year land supply and it was now 1,000 homes short of the required target.  He said the Council needed to deliver more than 800 houses per year to meet their target and he urged the Executive to recommend an immediate review of the Local Plan housing figures.

Mr N Whitsun-Jones, Chairman for the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) expressed his surprise that SSDC were content to accept the lack of a 5 year housing land supply and the consequent inability to resist development.  He said there should be an early review of the Local Plan on the basis of the latest information available. 

The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning (Place Making) said the Council was demonstrating a 4 year and 2 month land supply according to the calculation formula and this included a 20% buffer.  However a poor planning proposal could still be rejected and the Council continued to successfully appeal poorly designed proposed new developments.  She said the planning team were working with developers to see if they could lift any barriers to enable development. 

The Principal Policy Planner explained the process for calculating the 5 year housing land supply.  He regretted that only 606 dwelling had been completed during the last year, however, he said that the challenge was as much about ensuring developers deliver on the permissions they had been granted and that they would not automatically flood the market with housing otherwise they may distort the market which would affect sales values.  As the Council could demonstrate a 4 year and 2 month land supply, then some weight could be afforded to the Council’s policies.  An early review of the Local Plan was progressing but it must be evidence based. 

In response to questions from the Scrutiny Committee, the Principal Policy Planner advised that:-

·         Although there may be some transitional difficulties, it was not expected that the introduction of CIL would slow developments coming forward.

·         SSDC were working with large developers in Yeovil, Crewkerne and Chard to see if SSDC could use its resources to unlock development.

·         Although a low wage economy was factored into housing delivery, an individual’s ability to obtain finance to purchase properties was only just beginning to emerge as best practice.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee thanked the Principal Policy Planner and Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning (Place Making) for attending their meeting and answering their questions.

In response to a question why some of the housing supply sites listed in Appendix 1 to the report were included as they were not currently identified housing sites, the Principal Policy Planner explained that they were there for completeness but were not given any status as they did not benefit from planning permission. 

During discussion, several Members regretted the lack of the 5 year land supply which affected how they could determine future development and they called for an early review of the Local Plan housing figure and to lobby the Government regarding their National Planning Policy Framework and to change the formula for the 5 year housing land supply.  The Chairman confirmed that the District Councils Network (DCN) were lobbying the Government on this issue and he offered to circulate the minutes of their meetings to Members.  

At the conclusion of the debate, the majority of Members were content to confirm the recommendations of the report. 

(voting: 5 in favour, 2 against, 0 abstentions)