Tom Barker, Assistant Director – Planning for Growth
Members to scope the Five-year Land Supply to determine how to add value to progress this.
Minutes:
16.1 The Assistant Director – Planning for Growth, began by explaining how the Five-year Land Supply was calculated annually and how the NPPF, paragraph 47, the explained practice of the Five-year Land supply.
16.2 Members asked question in relation to the scoping document and if it was possible to receive a regular update for the existing land supply, as this could be recorded on a spreadsheet or database. It was felt that information about commencements and completions of planning permissions were information which was possible to collect and to audit. The officer responded that once a planning permission had been granted the developer had up to three years to commence building. Commencement dates were recorded, but completions dates could be supplied by the developer, but it was not always made available to the Councils. Completion dates were also more difficult to predict due to circumstances and it should be taken into consideration that even if planning permissions were granted they were not always commenced.
16.3 There had been attempts from Local Government Association (LGA) to get the Government to provide regulation for the supply of completion dates by developers.
16.4 Members referred to the White Paper in 2017 – Fixing our Housing Market, and asked if it was possible to take an objective approach and conduct a site by site analysis of completed developments and include this estimate in the annual Monitoring Report. Officers responded that it would be a risk to the Councils, if this estimate was incorrect and could damage the reputation of the Councils.
16.5 Members continued to raised questions including:
· Would it be possible to control the selling on of land with planning permission, therefore making the planning permission a commodity;
· When would the Councils be able to have a Five-year Land Supply;
· Would it be possible to get better information of completed developments from housing developers;
· If a proper risk assessment of calculating the lack of a Five-year Land supply for each Councils could be included in the report;
· Would it be possible to get Parish Councils to supply information about completed developments to the Councils;
· Even if the Councils had a Five-land Supply and it would this in the future, would that prevent developers from claiming the opposite;
· Would it be possible to supply a good estimate of deliverable future allocation of developments;
· Could the difficulties of gathering the information for completed developments be addressed;
· Were Council Tax reports part of the current Five-year Land supply calculation;
· Could the cost of officer time to complete the Five-year Land Supply calculation be included in the report;
· Could the issues regarding resource shortages in both the Planning and Development departments be included in the report;
· What was the national constraints compared with local restraints versus local constrains?
· When could Members Lobby LGA;
· How could Members impact on any of the resources;
· Members requested that a timeframe be included for when the Council would be able to have a Five-year Land Supply.
16.1 Some Members felt that sustainability has been part of the Councils development policies and that this had hindered the Five-year Land Supply.
16.2 Others felt that the lack of planning permissions for certain kinds of applications due to policy constrains and National Planning Policy Framework regulations and that this had impacted the Five-year Land Supply. Officers responded that the Councils had to consider the quality of the decision-making processes and reminded Member that the number of appeals overturned could posed a risk to the Council.
16.3 Members were reminded that the rate of new homes built for 2017/18 in the Districts were as follows:
Mid Suffolk District – 125 new homes
Babegh District - 95 new homes.
16.4 Members were informed that the position of the Five-year Land Supply would be calculated by 31 March 2018 and published in June 2018.
It was RESOLVED: -
That a report based on the scoping document be presented to Babegh Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 19 March and Mid Suffolk Overview and Scrutiny Committees on the 15 March 2018.
Supporting documents: