Building better (as well as faster)

Report out today on the broken housing market and achieving the mystical 300,000 new homes every year.  One topic of interest was build quality – with Government and local authorities criticised for not doing enough to prevent poor build quality of new homes. 

Key recommendations were that the Government department (MCHLG) should set out how local authorities, developers, and other agencies will prevent, penalise and compensate for poor residential build quality.  The Department’s design guide should also be revised to define what a sufficient quality of final build should look like. 

The Royal Institute of British Architects made the point in their submission that the design skills in local planning authorities had been cut back too far, and whilst design review panels can help these are no substitute for a properly resourced planning system. 

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/inquiry21/publications/

 

Dorset and the Housing Delivery Test results

The housing delivery test results for Dorset published this week make interesting reading.  Purbeck, West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland benefit from lower housing projection requirement figures than set out in their published plans and therefore are seen to be meeting their needs (with about a 30% margin of comfort).  The conurbation, East and North Dorset are all struggling, at least 15% below their requirements, and will have a 20% (rather than 5%) buffer applied to their 5 year housing land supply requirement in order to encourage the release of more housing land. 

The question will then turn to the impact this may have on the new authorities post-April.  There are no ‘split’ figures as yet for East Dorset and Christchurch, but, based on the joint figure, rural Dorset just scrapes through meeting 102% of its needs.  Whether this will ‘save’ North and East Dorset’s bacon from April onwards has yet to be seen.  Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole will continue to require a buffer regardless.

A revised NPPF has been also been published, bringing the guidance up-to-date with a few “minor clarifications” which appear to be related to the housing delivery tests, the definition and deliverable development and also in relation to using the presumption in favour of sustainable development when the Habitats regulations requires and appropriate assessment of the impacts.  Nothing that should cause major panic.

Neighbourhood plans and housing land supply

The guidance supporting national planning policy has been updated this month, with some notable additions on housing and neighbourhood plans.  There are three key messages coming through, which reinforce what I have been advising local groups:

(1)    If a neighbourhood plan is looking at housing or settlement boundaries, it is critical that it takes into account the housing needs for the area, both from district-wide and (if possible) locally sourced evidence. 

(2)    Do not take the settlement boundary for granted, as it may not count in the absence of a five year housing land supply at a district level – so if there are key spaces and places to protect outside of the boundary which are not otherwise subject to a designation, these should be highlighted in your plans.  Any locally sourced information on housing needs can also be used in planning decisions when there is a lack of a housing land supply. 

(3)    Local Plans are likely to get reviewed and allocate additional sites at some point in the future - neighbourhood plans can influence these future decisions, for example by allocating reserve sites to ensure that any future needs can be met.

--------------------------------
For those that want to read on – the relevant extracts are:

http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/revisions/41/040/

“Up-to-date housing needs evidence is relevant to the question of whether a housing supply policy in a neighbourhood plan or Order contributes to the achievement of sustainable development”

http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/revisions/41/082/

“Where the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites, decision makers may still give weight to relevant policies in the emerging neighbourhood plan, even though these policies should not be considered up-to-date … Documentation produced in support of or in response to emerging neighbourhood plans … may also be of assistance to decision makers in their deliberations”

http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/revisions/41/083/

When there is a lack of a 5 year housing land supply in the local plan area neighbourhood plan policies restricting housing supply will be “out of date”, and as such “the presumption in favour of sustainable development requires the granting of planning permission, unless any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the Framework taken as a whole; or specific policies in the Framework indicate development should be restricted”  “Decision makers should include within their assessment those policies in the Framework that deal with neighbourhood planning … which states that where a planning application conflicts with a neighbourhood plan that has been brought into force, planning permission should not normally be granted.”

http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/revisions/41/009/

“Neighbourhood plans should consider providing indicative delivery timetables, and allocating reserve sites to ensure that emerging evidence of housing need is addressed. This can help minimise potential conflicts and ensure that policies in the neighbourhood plan are not overridden by a new Local Plan.”

North Dorset Local Plan examination

First day of the North Dorset Local Plan examination - a sticky start?

The issues discussed were fairly fundamental - they included the plan period, the status of allocations and the broad locations for growth, and the relationship between part 1, the proposed part 2 and neighbourhood plans.

The Inspector (Mr David Hogger) made a number of observations.  In terms of the Duty to Cooperate, he was satisfied that the Council had met this test from his observations to date.  

The plan period came under considerable scrutiny.  The Inspector said he felt that the plan lacked the 15 year horizon advised by the national planning policy framework - particular as Part 2 (the site allocations plan) had yet to be prepared and would only last 9 years on adoption. Should the plan be halted whilst further work was done, could it be extended to 2031, or should there be an early review? Some of the participants noted that a new housing figure may be available this year from the work on the Strategic Housing Market Assessment - Poole and Purbeck had already published their draft figures. The District Council was asked to prepare further information on their thoughts about an early review.

There was also a lot of debate about how the rural housing needs were being addressed. Would the 230 homes allocation 'left over' from the towns really meet the needs of thriving rural communities? What would happen if rural areas had housing or other needs, but weren't prepared to do a neighbourhood plan or 'opt in' to Part 2? The Inspector said he was not sure there was enough in the local plan to provide a clear enough framework for rural communities undertaking neighbourhood planning, and that the 230 rural target had no relation to the rural needs. Furthermore they would not necessarily be built in the most appropriate locations. He was not convinced that this approach was sound. He asked the District Council to reassess their approach and look at both housing and employment needs for the rural areas to provide a stronger framework from which neighbourhood plans could evolve.

Day 3 should also be interesting - looking at the robustness of the Council’s objectively assessed housing need. This issue has tripped up many a Local Plan in recent years.

For more information on the programme go to https://www.dorsetforyou.com/northdorsetlocalplanexam