The Chairman of the Council, the Chairs of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 12.
Minutes:
Question 1
Councillor Eburne to Councillor Horn, Cabinet Member for Planning
As per the recently released Joint Annual Monitoring Report for 2017/18, what is the Mid Suffolk District Council work plan to ensure 454 homes are completed in this financial year (2018/19) and 780 homes are completed in the next financial year (2019/2020), thus ensuring retention of a Five-Year Housing Land Supply?
Response Councillor Horn, Cabinet Member for Planning
As Councillor Eburne will be aware, there is more to ‘ensuring retention of a five-year housing land supply’ than housing completions, although I recognise that forms part of the calculations. Equally important will be to ensure that planning permissions continue to flow through the system.
The Council’s own developments will form a constituent part of the overall completions and there is a detailed work programme to ensure that these flow through in a timely way. As you’ll be aware, it is more difficult for us to stimulate private developers to bring forward completions as there are fewer tools available to us and while we are still digesting the new NPPF it does not appear to provide us with any significant new opportunities.
There is a relationship here with your second question though so I will provide more detail in response to that question.
Supplementary Question Councillor Eburne to Councillor Horn, Cabinet
Member for Planning
I am aware that the key issue is that we’ve got 454 homes to deliver in this financial year, 780 in the next year, 1,150 in the year after and 1,134 the year after that and if we don’t have a plan to deliver those, then we are going to be in trouble again and the 5 year land supply will be short lived, Cllr Horn refers to the few of the tools available to us as well as those in the new NPPF Paragraph 76 refers to a tool for example that’s available which is having a shorter timescale. However, I think it is very important that we should also be having discussions with the developers. Is this something that the Council will try to bring forward and make sure that housing is happening. When will there be a plan as to how Mid Suffolk is actually going to help assist with getting these housing completions given the numbers are so much greater than any numbers we’ve achieved in the past 5 years?
Response Councillor Horn, Cabinet Member for Planning
We are still working with developers. This is not something new that we will start doing. We have been doing it for quite some time. The housing delivery test in planning terms will become a phrase that becomes very common over the next few years because that’s going to be a significant contribution to our success. What I think is a relevant and a point that has been raised is the relationship between the planning system and housing delivery. The planning system cannot be fully relied on entirely to deliver housing. It is also about relationships, how we work with our partners to bring them forward and using the tools that are at our disposal.
I would just caution against the law of unintended consequences as well as any knee jerk reactions to bringing in policies that we think will be effective in one area that actually cause us significant problems in the future. So we do need to digest what that might mean, if we’re bringing forward short term planning constraints and trying to force people to bring things in a very short period of time, how does that actually align with a 20 year plan or potentially a 10 year development plan for a strategic site? I would urge caution but will be working closely with Councillor Gowrley and Councillor Wilshaw to ensure the planning system supports housing delivery as much as possible
Question 2
Councillor Eburne to Councillor Horn, Cabinet Member for Planning
At the approval of the Mid Suffolk District Council budget 2018/19 on 22nd February 2018 it was agreed to appoint someone to work towards “unblocking” approved housing development sites that had stalled and therefore not yet commenced. Has this person started work and, if so, what have they been working on?
Answer:
Unfortunately while a job role was created, put through job evaluation panel and advertised, the recruitment process was ultimately unsuccessful. The pool of candidates was not strong and bearing in mind the importance of developing a strategy to address stalled sites, and delivery more generally, officers have engaged with potential consultants and have now have an agreement in place with Navigus Planning that they will deliver the following activity:
1. Construct a stalled sites database to enable analysis to be undertaken
of sites that have potential implementation and delivery issues.
2. Develop an approach to engaging with relevant stakeholders to
understand the reasons for housing sites stalling.
3. Engage with those stakeholders to understand issues and confirm
reasons for stalled sites and possible actions to address the issues.
4. Develop Council strategy for addressing issues with stalled sites.
5. Engage with officers, Members and other relevant parties, as advised by
the Council, regarding progress and actions.
Through this approach Navigus will work with senior officers, and help upskill other officers, to address issues that are hampering the efficient delivery of sites and use all of the tools available to the Councils so that we can help stimulate delivery more quickly.
I understand that you have seen the recent work from Oliver Letwin at a national level which indicates that ‘land banking’ is not a significant factor. Having only recently taken on the Cabinet Member responsibilities I am still digesting this myself to understand the constraints on market delivery and the options available to us. Like you, I recognise that this is a significant and important area of work over the coming months and years.