Cheshire East Council has announced that they can now demonstrate a housing land supply figure of more than seven years - giving a further boost to the house building sector and home buyers.
The figure of 7.2 years supply of housing land places the council comfortably above the five-year threshold, which all councils are expected to demonstrate when contesting undesirable planning applications.
Under national planning policy, planning inspectors can approve controversial applications where a planning authority, such as Cheshire East, cannot prove that it
has a five-year housing land supply – an issue which has led to a number of unpopular housing schemes on green belt or in the green gap in previous years.
Councillor Ainsley Arnold, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for housing, planning and regeneration, said: "This assessment means we can properly provide for the market and the affordable homes that local people need, as well as maintaining a sustainable workforce for our thriving economy. This gives us a sufficient margin to ensure we have full control over our planning decisions in future.
"I'm encouraged that many house builders are working positively with us and cracking on with getting new homes built in a prompt and planned manner. We can now focus on ensuring that the remaining sites in our local plan are implemented as soon as possible."
As of 31 March 2018, the council had a requirement of 12,630 new dwellings over five years but has confirmed it is now able to deliver 18,250 new homes – the equivalent of a 7.2-year housing land supply.
Comments
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It is encouraging to read that the latest CEC housing figures indicate a secure 5 year supply particularly as last week we learned another appeal has been lost allowing for 29 houses to be built at Shavington. It was a case of CEC figures being marginal. One wonders if this ruling was based upon March 2017 CEC figures given that the March 2018 figures have only just been published, November 2018, some 7 months late.
As is well known Residents of Wilmslow (RoW) update the Wilmslow housing figures weekly based upon the CEC figures published on their own website. We are grateful to have finally received the March 31st 2018 CEC figures but, as was the case last year, the published figure for commitments lags far behind the RoW figure. This has been discussed at CEC and we believe it is important that sometime before March 31st 2019 we sit together and reach an agreement.
Why is this important?
1. Clearly it is important to have accurate and up to date housing figures when facing a High Court Judge at appeal.
2. Accurate and up to date figures should protect further loss of Green Belt via the smaller sites brought forward in stage 2 of the Local Plan (SADPD).
3. New Homes Bonus is paid by the Government directly to councils based upon the number of completions. Clearly CEC is losing a significant amount of money each year if their figure for completions is below the actual. Then perhaps Parish and Town Councils like Wilmslow could receive a much bigger grant than is currently the case.
Time for challenge, time for change. Independent Councillors and RoW will provide both. The opportunity comes next May.
Their Local Plan was based upon myth in the first place and, were it not so serious, is now laughable.
When our Conservative Councillors voted to remove the Green Belt protection from the fields around our town and give the developers free rein, they let themselves (and us) down very badly.