Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as correct the notes of the meeting held on 12 January 2017.

The group approved the notes of the meeting held on 12 January 2017.

Members of the Housing & Public Protection PDAG have been invited to join the PDAG for this item to hear a briefing on the main parts of the White Paper and to have a short discussion on the implications for the Council.

The Director of Planning, Economic Development and Property briefed the group on the Housing White Paper – ‘Fixing our broken housing market’. Members heard that the White Paper

·         Was published for consultation until 2 May 2017

·         Urged that local plans be ambitious, and reviewed once every five years

·         Said local plans could be reviewed in parts

·         Funding would follow cross local authority area schemes, and that joint working was supported

·         Asked that councils have dialogue with neighbouring authorities

·         Proposed a standardised approach to housing need

·         Proposed more funding for neighbourhood planning

·         Sought the introduction and protection of a fixed housing land supply in the local plan

·         Proposed an increase in planning fees of 20% from July 2017, with a potential further increase to be consulted on, along with a fee for appeals

·         Sought to reduce delays in the planning system, minimising planning conditions

·         Would seek to simplify S106 and CIL

·         Would encourage affordable housing, such as modular construction and custom house building

Developers would have to publish ‘build out’ rates and the council could issue completion notices on stalled sites. Year on year benchmarking of delivery was expected.

At the invitation of the Chairman, the Housing Manager added that the White Paper provided:

·         An expectation that the impact of empty homes and second homes would be addressed

·         Information about the use of Lifetime ISAs

·         An emphasis on the future role of housing companies

Members indicated their support for more joint working; noting that the impact of increased planning fees would help, and agreed that no longer requiring a minimum amount of starter homes would not have as dramatic an impact on affordable housing. Officers assured members that there was not an immediate risk of a shortfall in housing land supply.

The Chairman noted the views of the group and explained that further discussion would be scheduled at the next meeting of the group.

Officers are looking for a small group of Councillors to form a pilot trial which would mean Councillors receive email notification when their Parish Council has objected to a planning application in their ward. This is being formed to find out whether such notifications would be helpful to Councillors, in gauging local opinion on applications within their ward.

The Development Manager explained that a trial was proposed to alert ward members when a parish council had objected to an application in their ward. Councillors Karen Burgess, Paul Clarke, Liz Kitchen, Paul Marshall and Tricia Youtan agreed to participate in the trial.

This document will focus on Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople. The Cabinet Member wishes to seek the advice of the group on the assessment of need and potential sites for the purposes of consultation.

The Head of Strategic Planning and Sustainability presented to the group. The group heard about the preparations for the publication of the Gypsy Traveller and Travelling Showpeople Draft Site Allocations of Land Preferred Strategy for a six week period of consultation. Officers explained:

·        Legislative requirements

·        National planning context

·        The new planning definition of a Gypsy and Traveller

·        The duty placed on local planning authorities by the CLG national policy document named ‘Planning policy for traveller sites’

·        The local planning context

·        Policy 21 of the HDPF: existing allocations

·        Policy 22 of the HDPF: sources of sites to assess

·        Current issues

·        The existing pitch supply

·        The updated needs assessment

The assessment of needs showed that the current requirement for pitches (or ‘backlog) totalled 47 pitches. The future accommodation needs across the next 15 years was for 9 pitches in the next five years (2017 to 2022), 19 pitches in the next 6 to 10 years, (2022 to 2027) and a further 18 pitches in the 11 – 15 year period (2027 to 2032). Together this equated to a total requirement of 93 pitches. National planning policy confirms that LPAs should identify a supply of specific, developable sites, or broad locations for growth, for years 6 to 10 and, where possible, for years 11 to 15. If the Horsham district was to only plan for the next 10 years to 2027, the total requirement for pitches would be 75.

There is a significant requirement for new pitches within the district in order to meet the assessed accommodation need and the Council’s requirements. In order to identify sites with potential for allocation a number of options had been considered as follows:

·        Existing HDPF allocations

·        Privately owned sites submitted to the Council as part of a ‘call for sites’ held in spring 2016.

·        The allocation of sites within strategic housing development sites

·        The use of publically owned land

·        Extensions to existing sites

·        The redevelopment and redesign of existing sites to provide more efficient use of the site to deliver additional pitches

·        Existing sites with temporary or personal planning permissions

It had been necessary to assess potential sites to ensure that they were suitable, available and were either deliverable (within the 1-5 year period) or developable (in the 6-15 year period). Factors that were considered included the following:

·        No significant barriers to development exist e.g. flooding, poor drainage, poor ground stability or proximity hazardous land or installation where conventional housing would not be suitable;

·        The site has safe and convenient vehicular and pedestrian access;

·        The site can be properly serviced and is supplied with essential services, such as water, power, sewerage and drainage, and waste disposal. The site must also be large enough to provide adequate vehicle parking, including circulation space, along with residential amenity and play areas;

·        The site is located in or near to existing settlements, within reasonable distance of a range of local services and community facilities, in particular schools and essential health services;

·        The development will not have an unacceptable impact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.