Housing Local Plan Review
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APPENDIX ONE Eden Local Plan Review Housing Policies and Draft Affordable Housing Policies Consultation Document March 2004 INTRODUCTION Local Authorities are required by law to prepare Local Plans and to keep them up to date. The Local Plan guides development within the Local Planning Authority area and sets policies against which development proposals are assessed. The Eden Local Plan aims to provide clear guidance at a local level on most planning issues. The current Eden Local Plan was adopted in 1996 and was intended to extend to 2006. The process of review formally began however, in 2002, with the publication of the Deposit Consultation Eden Local Plan Review. That document proposed modifications, where considered appropriate, to all topics dealt with under the plan, except housing. Housing was excluded from the 2002 consultation exercise because the target figures for housing which were to be contained in the County Structure Plan were not available at that time. In May 2003, the Deposit version of the County and Lake District Joint Structure Plan 2001-2016 was published. This included housing targets for each District in the County. The Local Plan is required to conform to the County Structure Plan and in turn with Regional Planning Guidance. Accordingly in December 2003 a set of Eden Local Plan Review Housing Policies was approved by the Council as interim guidance in accordance with the emerging County Structure Plan and as a basis for public consultation as part of the Local Plan Review process. Affordability of housing is a key issue, not only in terms of planning policy, but also in terms of the Council’s wider corporate role in meeting the housing needs of local people and ensuring a sufficient variety of types of housing to meet everyone’s needs. Accordingly the Council also prepared, in January 2004, a draft Affordable Housing Policy. The two sets of policies, although prepared under different sets of legislation, are intended to be mutually supportive and complimentary. The Council Leaders have decided that a joint consultation exercise be held, enabling both the public, partners and statutory bodies, to see, as it were, the whole picture. At the conclusion of the consultation exercise, elected members of the Council will be presented with the results of the consultation exercise and with any recommended changes to either set of policies arising from the exercise. A democratic decision will be taken by elected members as to what changes to adopt. In the case of the Eden Local Plan Review Housing Policies, revisions will be incorporated with those arising from the 2002 Deposit Consultation on topics other then housing. A second deposit consultation exercise will then be held in the Autumn of 200, in accordance with legislation governing the revision of Local Plans. It is currently anticipated that a Public Inquiry on the Local Plan Review will be held in the early part of 2005. In responding to either set of policies, please make use of the comments form provided. A separate form should be used for each policy commented upon. It is important to note that representations cannot be treated as confidential and will be available for public inspection. The contents of the policies, and comment forms may also be obtained from the Council’s website www.eden.gov.uk Eden Local Plan Review Housing Policies Policy H1 Priorities for Housing Development Reasoned Justification In identifying the scale and location of new housing development, the District Council has been guided by both National and Structure Plan policies. Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 (PPG3), which provides guidance on a range of issues relating to the provision of housing states that: “…………… everyone should have the opportunity of a decent home ……… and the housing needs of all in the community should be recognised ……… promote more sustainable patterns of development and make better use of previously-developed land, the focus for additional housing should be in existing towns and cities to promote urban renaissance”. Sufficient housing land must be brought forward through the local plan to meet the Structure Plan target. This target is derived from the Regional Planning Guidance 13 (RPG13) for the North West Region. Policy UR7 of Regional Planning Guidance requires 1170 dwellings a year to be built in Cumbria until 2016. This figure is well below the trend in recent years. In Eden, the Structure Plan target is dis-aggregated to 170 dwellings per year, this target is currently expressed in terms of consents. This target is further broken down in Policy H1 between the four main towns in the District. The main focus for housing within Eden is intended to be in Penrith, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen and Alston. The density requirement for residential development will be generally between thirty and fifty dwellings per hectare, in accordance with PPG3. Monitoring the housing land requirement for the District on an annual basis has demonstrated that there is an over supply of allocated residential land. The vast majority of this oversupply of allocated land in the 1996 Local Plan is also on greenfield land. The need to restrain housing development in the light of RPG and general guidance from Central Government on housing has led to the intention to de- allocate the majority of sites allocated in the 1996 Local Plan where there is no extent planning permission. (See also Policy H2). A sequential approach to the release of housing land for development is to be adopted. The sequential approach will be: Firstly, to utilise urban capacity in terms of using existing buildings. Secondly, to utilise urban capacity in terms of brownfield (previously developed) land. Thirdly, to utilise appropriate greenfield sites contained within urban areas. Finally, to utilise greenfield extension sites in urban areas. It should be noted that the first two categories do not include former agricultural buildings or farm steadings. Affordable Housing will be secured in the range of 30% to 100% in accordance with the Council’s Affordable Housing Policy. Proposed Modification The main focus for residential development in the District will be within the four main service centres of Penrith, Alston, Kirkby Stephen and Appleby which provide residential development on previously developed (brownfield) sites or which utilise existing buildings. Planning applications for housing development will be assessed against the Sequential Test set out in Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 (PPG3) and against the target figure of 170 dwellings per year for Eden District, derived from Regional Planning Guidance and the County Structure Plan. The number of consents granted will be carefully monitored and applications which exceed the 170 target in any given year will be refused. A figure of 20 units will be allocated to development outside the four main service centres. (This the residual 150 target is further dis-aggregated in the following proportions for the four main service centres on the basis of population size, thus Penrith 120 units, Alston 16 units, Appleby 19 units and Kirkby Stephen 13 units. In order to ensure that permissions are utilised and not simply ‘land banked’ the period of time by which development will commence, will be changed by condition from the standard 5 years to 2 years. Where a shortfall against the target occurs in any year, then consideration will be given to housing development under H2, H5 and H11. Policy H2 Allocations for Residential Development Reasoned Justification Policy HS1 of the 1996 Local Plan designated land for residential development within 46 villages. In many instances the site has been developed for housing since 1996, in others the site is currently under development and will eventually be completed or may be developed where there is an extant planning permission in force. In other cases, where none of these circumstances apply, a re-assessment of the suitability of the site for continued designation has been undertaken. This re-assessment has been undertaken against current planning policy, ie PPG3 and PPG7, RPG and the provisions of the Cumbria and Lake District Joint Structure Plan 2001 – 2016, Deposit. Additionally in undertaking re-assessments of those sites allocated in the 1996 Local Plan which to date have not secured planning consent, account has been taken of the availability of realistically developable brownfield sites identified in the Urban Capacity Study of February 2003, in the same settlement. All of the allocated sites are within the four main service centres of Penrith, Alston, Appleby and Kirkby Stephen. The de-allocation of sites is a direct consequence of changed national, regional and Structure Plan Policy. Consideration may be given, to the allocation of urban extension sites in the four key service centres, within the Plan Term to 2016, should the current allocations prove insufficient or not be brought forward for development. Further land may be allocated should current allocations prove insufficient to maintain the focus of new housing development to within the 4 Key Settlements. The Council will produce planning briefs for those sites identified in Policy H2 which will then be formally adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance. Such briefs will address in further detail the issues of the proportion of affordable housing sought, density, phasing, open space, landscaping and design. In general terms, densities of a range between 30-50 units per hectare will be considered appropriate. It is however considered appropriate that