OFFICERS’ REPORTS TO
PLANNING POLICY & BUILT HERITAGE WORKING PARTY – 14 JANUARY 2013
PUBLIC BUSINESS – ITEM FOR DECISION
1.
Local Development Framework – Mixed Use Allocation At Holt
This report informs Members of progress on a Development Brief for the allocation
at Holt - land at Heath Farm/Hempstead Road and suggests a process for public
consultation prior to considering its approval.
1. INTRODUCTION
The Site Allocations Development Plan makes proposals for a mixed use
development on land at Heath Farm/Hempstead Road, Holt. In common with a
number of allocations it will be necessary to agree a Development Brief before any
development can occur. Policy H09 of the Allocations Document requires the prior
approval of such a Brief and states that it should address; access (to be from the
A148) and sustainable transport, layout, phasing, including the phased provision of
serviced employment land and conceptual appearance.
The Council will need to formally approve the Brief as a basis for the determination of
future planning applications on the site.
2. THE BRIEF
Development Briefs are prepared as a way of establishing key requirements which
should be complied with when sites are developed. They are particularly useful for
large mixed use development sites where it is important to establish broad
distribution of land uses and where development may come forward in phases. Their
content can vary widely but commonly they will incorporate an overarching vision for
the development, broad development principles of development layout, design codes
and phasing. Briefs should be subject to public consultation and formal approval by
the Council and once approved are material to the determination of future planning
applications.
A Draft Brief has been prepared by planning consultants on behalf Brown Brothers
and Bullen Investment Ltd, two of the major landowners of the site. The Brief has
been informed by a ‘Vision Statement’ for the site, which was formulated by the
Council’s Major Development Team in consultation with Holt Town Council. In
addition, at this early planning stage the Major Development Team has provided
technical advice on aspects of the site’s development. The Draft Brief responds to
this and sets out key development principles as to how the site will be developed in
order to deliver the Vision. The Brief also includes a Master Plan, indicating primary
points of access and where on site the different land uses are proposed.
The content of the Draft Brief has been the subject of considerable discussion
between officers and the acting planning consultants. Subject to a number of minor
changes which have been agreed between the two parties, it is now considered to be
in an acceptable form for public consultation.
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3. ARRANGEMENTS FOR CONSULTATION
It is proposed that the document is published for a 28 day period of
public/stakeholder consultation. The consultation will be publicised in the local press
and will include a staffed exhibition during the early part of the consultation period.
Site notices will be displayed around the site. Officers will attend a meeting of Holt
Town Council to outline the proposals and explain the process prior to
commencement of the consultation.
Officers will outline the content of the draft brief at the meeting.
RECOMMENDATION
That the Draft Brief be subject to a 28 day period of public/stakeholder
consultation.
(Source: Tracy Armitage, Senior Planning Officer, ext 6304)
PUBLIC BUSINESS – ITEM FOR DECISION
2.
Housing Land Supply – Publication of Statement of Five Year Supply of
Residential Development Land
This report provides an overview of the amount of land which is available for housing
development in the District, identifies how much of this land might reasonably be
expected to be developed over the next five years and seeks authority to publish a
statement of the Council’s position.
1. INTRODUCTION
Each year the Council is required to publish a document which identifies the quantity
of land in the District which is likely to be available for housing development over the
next five years (Document attached as Appendix A). The amount of land available is
then compared with the housing targets for the District in the adopted Core Strategy.
Authorities should aim to retain a rolling five year supply of land, plus a contingency of
between 5% and 20%, which is available and suitable for development so that
housing targets can be met. The expectation is that through the preparation of
development plans and the processing of planning applications the Authority should
take a proactive role to ensure that an adequate supply of housing land is available at
all times.
2. WHAT IS A FIVE YEAR SUPPLY OF HOUSING LAND IN NORTH NORFOLK?
Housing land supply is expressed as a number of dwellings likely to be built rather
than a quantity of land that is available. It is a comparison of the number of dwellings
likely to be built with the annual target for dwellings which will need to be built if
overall Development Plan targets are to be met. In North Norfolk the adopted Core
Strategy requires that a minimum of 8,000 dwellings are built over the 20 year period
from 2001 to 2021. The Authority should therefore plan, on average, to ensure that at
least 400 dwellings can be built in each year. In the first eleven years of the plan
period the rate of new dwelling completions fell behind this annual average mainly as
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a result of there being few larger development sites available and, more recently, the
slowdown in the national and local housing market. Consequently, in the remaining
years of the plan period the Council should plan to make up the deficit.
As of April 2012 the annual average target for new dwellings in the District had risen
from 400 to 491 (inclusive of a 5% buffer) resulting in a five year land supply
requirement of sites suitable for 2,455 dwellings (491 dwellings x 5 years = 2,455
dwellings).
3. CURRENT HOUSING LAND SUPPLY IN NORTH NORFOLK
Each year the Council produces a Statement of Housing Land Supply. This presents
information on the various anticipated sites suitable for housing development in the
District. This is compiled from a number of sources of information including rates of
development over previous years, planning permission records, records of dwellings
under construction, and the expected delivery rates on allocated sites in the Site
Allocations Development Plan. Identification of sites that can deliver housing is
relatively straightforward, but estimating how much of this capacity might actually be
delivered over a five year period is much more difficult and inevitably requires some
assumptions to be made.
Guidance requires that to ‘count’ towards the five year land supply sites must comply
with a number of criteria:
In the main they must be specific identifiable sites although some allowance
can be made for ‘windfall’ developments (sites which are not identifiable until
such time as planning applications are made) - provided there is a strong
likelihood that such sites will actually be developed within the period.
the identified sites must be available for development now, and
they must be suitable for development, and
development must be achievable; there should be a reasonable prospect of a
site actually being developed. It is not sufficient to include sites merely
because they have planning permission or are allocated for development in a
Development Plan. It is important to show that houses will actually be provided
within the applicable five year period.
Hence, whilst the Council is currently able to point to a large land supply in the
adopted Site Allocations Development Plan which includes land for around 3,400
dwellings it is not able to demonstrate that all of these sites are immediately available
or have a reasonable prospect of being developed within the next five years. Indeed
the Core Strategy and Site Allocation Development Plans are 15 -20 year Plans
which anticipate that some sites will be slower to deliver housing than others. The
latest statement covering the five year period commencing next April (2013)
concludes that through a combination of sites with planning permission, sites that are
under construction, and those that are likely to provide dwellings over the next five
years, the District can provide approximately 2,442 dwellings - equating to 4.97 years
supply inclusive of a 5% buffer.
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Table 1 – Five Year Land Requirement compared with Supply.
TOTAL 5 YEAR SUPPLY
TOTAL DWELLINGS
EXPECTED FROM ALL
SOURCES (large sites,
pending applications,
other potential sources,
site allocations and small
sites)
2,442
REQUIRED FIVE YEAR
SUPPLY INCLUDING 5%
BUFFER
2,455
CURRENT NUMBER OF
YEARS SUPPLY
4.97
Total number of dwellings expected
to be built within the next 5 years
from all sources.
Total number of dwellings required
in the next 5 years to ensure
targets are met including a 5%
buffer
Supply divided by the annual
average requirement (491).
4. LAND SUPPLY AND TRAJECTORY – WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE?
The pipeline of future housing supply is drawn from four main sources:
Permitted - Dwellings on sites which already have planning permission but
where development is yet to start but where there is a reasonable prospect of
completed units within the next 5 years.
Under Construction - Dwellings which are under construction but are not yet
complete. Dwellings where development has started but are not likely to be
finished (long term dormant) are not counted.
Allocated - Dwellings on identified sites (allocations) which do not yet have
planning permission but nevertheless are likely to provide completed houses
within five years.
Windfall – Allowance for dwellings on unidentified sites.
The Permitted Supply
On the 12th of November 2012 there were a total of 1,469 dwellings in the District
which had planning permission that were not yet built. Of these 1,307 had a full or
reserved matters planning approval. The remaining 162 only had outline planning
permission and consequently development is unable to commence until such time as
reserved matters approval is granted. This permitted supply comprises all sources of
new dwellings with planning permission and includes new builds, sub divisions, and
rural building conversions. The permitted supply figure can vary widely both within a
year and between years and is influenced by both new permissions granted and
dwellings completed. Over the last decade there has typically been between 800 and
1,300 dwellings at any given time where full planning permission has been granted
but development has not been completed.
Commencements
Of the 1,307 dwellings with full planning permission which could be built some 394
(30%) are recorded as commencements, that is, sufficient works have taken place on
the site to constitute a legal start of the development. They are on a mixture of sites
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(254 different sites in total) where development can either be described as
continuous (Cromer - Railway Triangle), intermittent, or dormant. Of the 394
commenced dwellings, a small proportion (around 59 dwellings) secured planning
permission more than ten years ago.
Permitted but not started
Of the 1,307 dwellings which could be built some 913 homes (66%), on 171 different
sites, have yet to be started. Over 600 of these are on sites where planning
permissions have only recently been granted but a further 239 were first granted
planning permission more than 10 years ago. Dormant or stalled sites - that is sites
where development started more than 10 years ago (including some partly built
dwellings) and has not continued or continues very slowly, account for approximately
one third of the permitted supply.
Types of site
Around half of the permitted supply is currently on small sites with consent for less
than 10 dwellings. However, for the first time in some years there are larger sites
where planning permissions have been granted and development has commenced.
Housing delivery in the coming years will be increasing dependant on the
development of larger sites. Whilst some of the Site Allocations have been granted
permission or are likely to be subject to applications in the next few months it remains
the case that these are unlikely to deliver significant numbers of dwellings until 2014
and beyond.
Conclusion
Given the current situation the position in relation to land supply will need to be kept
under regular review. Although there is a deficiency in the five year supply, this is
very slight (less than 25 dwellings). There remains a large supply of sites with
planning permission which in the event of an upturn in the housing market could, at
least theoretically, deliver the annual average dwelling requirement for the next few
years. Furthermore the Council is in a strong position in terms of allocated sites, a
significant proportion of which are anticipated to secure planning permissions over
the next 12 -18 months. The single greatest impact on delivery figures is the
slowdown in the housing market, which both nationally and locally has seen a 4050% reduction in completion rates, and until this recovers it should be expected that
development rates will be below both historical rates and required averages.
Given this the Council will need to carefully consider any planning applications which
do not comprise part of the existing housing land supply, including those where the
grant of planning permission would represent a departure from adopted policies and
consider carefully the deliverability of such proposals. Any proposals should continue
to be considered in accordance with adopted Development Plans having regard to
the land supply situation at the time of application and other material considerations.
RECOMMENDATION
That the attached Land Supply Statement is published, and
This report is presented to the Development Committee as an item for
information.
(Source: Mark Ashwell, Planning Policy Manager ext. 6325)
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