Issue - meetings

To consider the Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2021

Spelthorne Borough Council is required by national government to produce a Housing Delivery Test Action Plan (HDTAP) because housing delivery for the previous three years fell below the minimum annual local housing need figure of 611 dwellings per annum, and currently stands at 50%.  In addition to the requirement for an action plan, a 20% buffer will be applied to the housing requirements and a presumption in favour of development because the housing delivery for the past three years was less than 75%.  The HDTAP sets out what actions have been taken and also future actions to address the issue.

The Planning Development Manager explained that the action plan did not play a role in deciding emerging issues in the local plan but looked at:

• The Council’s corporate documents that affect housing delivery
• The issues, both nationally and locally, that had impacted on the target numbers not being achieved and analysis of these,
• Identified measures that could be taken to improve the situation.  This included more pre-application discussions to ensure issues were addressed early on, building relationships with developers, increased presentations to councillors for major developments and improvements to the planning section of the Council’s website.

The Committee discussed the matter at length and asked a number of questions about the report. One member commented that some aspects of the plan were aspirational and, in relation to the housing numbers quoted for Staines, conflicted with the views of many Staines residents and ward members.  It was noted that a number of other local authorities within Surrey had also fallen well below their expected housing number. 

Whilst it was acknowledged that the Council’s housing delivery fell short of the total required, members considered that the Council should not be willing to compromise important standards such as affordability and sustainability to meet housing numbers.  

During the debate, the following amendments to the plan were suggested:

1.    Paragraph 2.6 of the HDTAP should be amended to reflect that the Council have again challenged the target number set by national government.

2.    The introduction should make clear that the HDTAP relates to planning development management rather than strategic planning and the local plan.

3.    More information about the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and how this interlinks with the wider infrastructure provision and the local plan.

4.    In the section titled ‘Challenges’ it was suggested that this should be amended to reflect our commitment to increase the housing numbers, but not to compromise our standards on affordability, design standard and environmental factors, and aim to encourage developers to do the same. 

Comments were also made about the need for diversity of housing, not just building flats.  The Chair commented that the limited land available for development made this option unlikely unless green belt was released.

Another aspect raised by members was that the presumption in favour of development, as directed by central government, increased the potential number of planning appeals for local authorities with the lowest housing delivery statistics, such as the Council’s.   This could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 512