A Planning Inspector recently ruled that WC does not have a five-year supply of development land in the southern housing market area.
Mike Wilmott, Head of Development Management will explain the background to this, the implications and the longer term remedial action.
Minutes:
A Planning Inspector recently ruled that Wiltshire Council did not have a five-year supply of development land in the southern housing market area.
Mike Wilmott, Head of Development Management explained the background to this, the implications and the longer term remedial action.
The current Government had set a target to build 300k new homes a year. To help achieve this aspiration they expect Local Housing Authorities to approve new houses in their areas.
For a site to be considered deliverable it must meet criteria. In Wiltshire our Housing Need was established in the Wiltshire Core Strategy, approved in back in January 2015.
For the ten year period of 2006 – 2026, just under 10.5k of the houses to be built were within the area of the Southern Wiltshire.
The Southern Wiltshire Strategy we have, sets out development along the idea that the majority would be built in the larger areas of Salisbury, Amesbury and Downton.
There was a slow start to house building from 2006 and during the earlier years of the period covered by the Core Strategy we were not delivering the amount of new housing required. We are now delivering over 500 a year due to the larger housing development sites that have come on stream in Salisbury and Amesbury in particular.
Some allocated sites in the Core Strategy simply haven’t come forward. The Engine Shed and Churchfields area in Salisbury, was expected to deliver 1100 houses, but unfortunately nothing has come forward to date. We are still waiting for the Inspectors report into the Wiltshire Housing Sites Plan to come forward and until that is available we are a bit short of our supply.
The latest Housing Land Supply statement the Council has published shows that we currently have around 4.45 years supply of the required 5 year supply in the Southern Wiltshire Housing Market Area. That is a shortfall of 322 dwellings.
Before they can be taken into account in the land supply, there needs to be certainty of them coming forward. A planning application has been submitted, but the Inspector’s report into the Sites Plan will clarify whether the allocation is a sound one
We are also considering applications for housing on unallocated sites. A site at Longhenge was initially allocated for employment land, and we were now looking to see whether that should be for mixed use, to include some housing.
As the Wiltshire Core Strategy will be five years old next January 2020, we must look to produce a new plan, as the Government has made it a requirement that strategic policies need to be reviewed every five years to ensure that they are up to date. We are already looking at new proposals as part of the new plan, which will be consulted on in due course.
Previously we looked at the Housing Needs in three areas of Wiltshire; North West, East, and one for the South, we have been looking for a five-year land supply for each of these housing market areas.
We are considering whether from January 2020 we will need to calculate the Housing Land Supply for the whole of Wiltshire or continue to divide it out separately for the three individual housing need areas.
When there is no longer a Housing Land Supply in place the policies in the development plan are deemed to be out of date. The weight we can give to these policies when applying them to sites that lie outside the limits of development is not as strong, although areas such as AONB’s, heritage assets and sites of special scientific interest are still protected.
In practice this is more likely to effect sites in the larger settlements like Salisbury and Amesbury. It is unlikely to make much difference in small villages where development is normally restricted to infill.
If you have a Neighbourhood Plan in your area made within the last two years and it allocates sites for housing development, then a three year land supply is all you need for the policies to be considered up to date.
The Alderbury appeal was in December, there are a lot more planning constraints down here including the National Park and the AONB and drainage issues, so we have been seeing more pressure around the larger settlements.
There was a copy of latest Housing Land Supply Statement on the council website since august. We would be reviewing that again after the Wiltshire Sites Plan is further advanced.
The figure changes yearly. It may take us a little while to get back up to the five-year figure. If we could get some of the sites along Netherhampton Road approved in the Sites Plan that would help.
Questions:
· Mick Brown, Winterslow PC – We are protected by being listed as a large village in the Core Strategy. Is that protection no longer guaranteed? Answer: Guarantee is a strong word. The limits of development would be given considerable weight, but I cannot give a guarantee it would be the same weight as if we had a five year land supply. We will have to consider all application on their own merits.
· Brian Edgeley, Firsdown PC - When you refer to Salisbury and Amesbury, not sure what the parameters are, do the likes of Firsdown and Winterslow get included? Answer: No Firsdown is recognised as a small village. so we would not expect to see developers trying for 60 houses there.
· Small villages are considered unsustainable, if families want to live in villages you need to provide houses for families as we are short in our villages. We are losing all our activities for older people, is that what you want? Answer: As a parish you can produce your own Neighbourhood Plan and request a higher number of houses developed above what WC has indicated. If you want new development in your village, then do a plan.
· David Mace, Downton PC – We have a target and it has been achieved. When a subsequent application came in WC rejected it and it went to appeal. It was refused as we have a Neighbourhood Plan. We are now outside of the 2 year period, but cannot remember the Minister mentioning that 2 year period? Answer: It is in the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF). After first 2 years the weight may reduce. One consideration we do take into account is that you have delivered the number to meet the housing need.
· Vic Bussereau, Laverstock & Ford PC - The report you refer to has a baseline of March last year, if a developer comes along and wants to put down a development can they still quote a 4.5 year supply, is that still valid? Answer: Yes, as it’s the most recently published land supply statement. Even though it goes back a long way it is most recent. As housing land supply fluctuates, there will be developers that try to challenge our supply. It would be useful if we had the decision on the housing land supply.
· Vic – You are talking about the Housing Site Allocation Plan – that does not have any planning application with it. Do you have to have a planning application to be considered? Answer: We do have an application in for 640 sites on Netherhampton Road. We need to demonstrate that where we have an application for large number of houses we need to see what proportion of that amount will be finished within the first few years. We cannot include the whole 640 within the five year supply as unlikely they would all be built out within that time frame.
· Cllr Devine - We have a Cabinet member for Planning, I get the feeling you are saying it is all too much and you cannot put together a strategy to overcome this. Have you actually got a strategy? Answer: Yes we do. As I have explained earlier, we are allocating more land through the Housing Sites Plan; we are considering applications for housing on sites around Salisbury not currently allocated for housing; and we are moving on with preparations for the Wiltshire Local Plan that will allocate further sites to provide the homes that are needed. The aim of both ourselves and the Government is to have a plan-led system and that is what we are committed to.
Any follow up questions to be directed to Mike.wilmott@wiltahire.gov.uk