Heron Way home on the market
Brock Taylor offer Cavok for sale
Mapp & Co score a hat-trick!
property
Fears over housing Horsham District Council has written to the Government asking it to look urgently at concerns about future new housing development in the Horsham District. The Council is concerned that, thanks to current national policy, new housing will be introduced in an uncontrolled and ad hoc way in the Horsham District, where there is little tangible benefit to local communities. The Leader of Horsham District Council, Cllr Robert Nye, has sent a letter to the Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, asking the Government to review its planning policy in this respect. I n the
letter, Cllr Nye (below) says: “Horsham District Council has, for many years, had a reputation for addressing the housing requirements in the District proactively and on the basis of a plan-led approach. “The Council was the third authority in the country and the first in the South East region to have a “sound” Local Development Framework Core Strategy, covering the period to 2018. “It has been working with the relevant local communities since then to implement the provisions of the Core Strategy, particularly so far as the major housing developments are concerned. “We now find ourselves in a very difficult position. Despite actively pursuing an approach to our Local Development Framework responsibilities which marry up well with the evolving “localism” agenda, we face the threat of having to accept new housing development on an “ad hoc” basis in locations where there is little tangible benefit to the local communities. “Two appeals have been allowed recently because we have been unable to maintain the five year land supply required by the Government’s Planning Policy Statement for housing (PPS3). “Our land supply is deficient because the South East Plan increased the housing numbers
and the basis for calculation and, in addition, the recession has meant that progress with major and smaller housing sites was severely curtailed. Neither factor was due to us and yet our communities are paying the price. “The proposed removal of the regionally imposed housing targets, in the South East Plan, will have some benefit in reducing the pressures at the upper limit for new housing development, but the current system will still require some form of “control” total for housing requirements and, with the continuation of five year housing supply requirements in their current form, there will not be either the scope or the opportunity to work with local communities in the short to medium term in the way intended. “There is, in fact, a significant prospect of misleading local communities on the benefits of the proposed introduction of localism into the planning system unless the issue of the current five year housing land supply requirements is addressed as a priority. “The Council believes that there should, alongside the proposed Decentralisation and Localism Bill, be a thorough review of the five year housing land supply requirements set out primarily in paragraphs 70 and 71 of PPS3, with a view to
Several sites in the district, including land at Southwater, are being considered for housing development
setting future such requirements within the context of the preparation of locally generated housing needs and the consensus approach as to how best to tackle these needs at the local level. “Your proposals to incentivise councils to deliver land for housing through the planning system, by matching council tax receipts, could form the basis of a tool to ensure delivery - using carrots not sticks. “Without such a shift in Government planning policy, there
The HCR Partnership
Energy Performance Certificates from
£60
plus VAT
07810 008193
thehcrpartnership@btinternet.com
will still be the potential for the imposition of development schemes on local communities, through planning by appeal, contrary to the basis of the proposed approach intended to give those communities a genuine say in how their communities develop in the future. “On behalf of my Council and the communities we represent, can I urge you to give this issue serious and urgent consideration.” Horsham District Council believes that if the Government
genuinely intends councils to plan to meet their locally generated needs, rather than imposed regional housing targets, that it is essential to change the system of requirements that are placed upon it. There will continue to be a need for new homes, but the current five year land supply requirement needs to be removed to allow the Council to plan proactively with its communities for the future of the area. Left: Cllr Robert Nye