Agenda item

The report provides a summary of house building monitoring information to the year ending 31 March 2023.

The Committee considered the Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management’s report outlining the latest monitoring figures on housing completions, forecasts and projections of the district’s five-year housing land supply to year ending 31 March 2023.

Members noted that in summary from April 2022 to March 2023 there were 998 net new dwellings completed after taking into account 67 care home bedrooms compared to 1,039 completed from April 2021 to March 2022. 

The main reasons that the council could only demonstrate a forecast of 4.28 years of deliverable supply were due to:

a)    The Planning Inspectorate taking a stricter approach on clear deliverability on planning appeals;

b)    The slow-down in build rates and sales due to the current challenging housing market conditions;

c)     Loss of developers/builders due to administration.

The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management advised that because of the significant shortfall in housing land supply.  Members should be mindful of the implications for decision making as set out in paragraph 3.9 in the report.

Comments made by Non-Committee Members included:

·       There is a need to look at how we calculate windfall sites.  It was advised that the larger development sites were not taken into account.

·       Clarification was sought about the high phosphate levels in the River Axe and if the levels were sorted and development could commence in the catchment area would this help achieve the five-year housing land supply.  In response it was advised that there were only about 150 homes held up at the application stage purely because of by the phosphate level issue.  A much larger numbers of applications had other issues to resolve which were on top of the phosphate levels. This is impacting on the housing land supply position but would not in itself make up the shortfall.

·       Clarification was sought on the number of affordable homes completed and whether the council was delivering the required 25%.  The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management advised that a lot of the smaller sites fell below the required threshold to provide affordable housing and that a number of the larger sites were subject to viability issues which resulted in developers delivering less than the required proportion.

·       It was suggested that the housing delivery test was flawed following a government report in March 2023 which appeared to penalise councils.

Comments made by Committee Members included:

·       Clarification was sought about lapsed consented planning applications and whether landowners were reminded about these as these would help bolster the five-year land supply.  There was not a process in place to send out reminders.  Although it was acknowledged it was a contributing factor, it was not a major factor, and that more research was required to understand this further.

·       Clarification was sought on the AONBs and the lack of a five-year housing land supply and how this would affect AONB areas if the town or parish council did not have a neighbourhood plan.  The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management referred to the tilted balance in the government guidance and did not expect additional development to take place in AONBs as a result of the housing land supply position and that policies in the local plan would be relied on if there was not a neighbourhood plan.

·       Clarification was sought on whether the pause on the assessment of housing sites in the draft local plan had affected the current position.  There was no immediate impact but progressing the local plan in a timely manner would help bolster the housing numbers in the long term.

·       Clarification was sought on paragraph 3.9.  In response the Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management referred to paragraph 11 in the NPPF which outlined what is a sustainable development and reassured Members it was not an open door for developers.

·       Reference was made to Section 5 in the appended report and the inequality of the supply of houses in the West End of East Devon and the rest of East Devon.

·       Reference was made to the housing monitoring figures for the last 4 years for windfall completions and whether there was a plan to review the way these numbers were calculated as it appeared the council was systematically underestimating the number of windfall sites coming forward.  The Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management took this point on board and said he was happy to look into this further.

Two further recommendations were proposed by Councillor Mike Howe and Councillor Jess Bailey which were supported by the proposer of the recommendations, Councillor Ben Ingham and seconder, Councillor Charlotte Fitzgerald.

1.          that this report and its decision be reported to the East Devon District Council Planning Committee.

2.          That a report in respect of the issues relating to windfall sites be brought to a future Strategic Planning Committee meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.          That the district five-year housing land supply position and the potential risks and implications of the forecast supply as detailed in Section 5 of the Housing Monitoring Update 2023 be noted.

2.          That the residential dwellings completion date and future forecasts for the district be noted.

3.          That the Housing Monitoring Update 2023 be published on the Council’s website as part of the Authority Monitoring Report.

4.          That the publication of the 2023 Housing Monitoring Update audit trail document and the detailed tables in Appendix 2 of the Housing Monitoring Update 2023 be delegated to the Assistant Director – Planning Strategy and Development Management in consultation with the Portfolio Holder – Strategic Planning and the document be published by the end of October 2023 on the Council’s website as part of the Authority Monitoring Report.

5.          That this report and its decision be reported to the East Devon District Council Planning Committee

6.          That a report in respect of the issues relating to windfall sites be brought to a future Strategic Planning Committee meeting.