Doncaster MBC EMPLOYMENT LAND STUDY
with
Final Report December 2008
ROGER TYM & PARTNERS
17 St Ann’s Square Manchester M2 7PW t 0161 834 0833 f 0161 834 0818 e [email protected] w www.tymconsult.com
This document is formatted for double-sided printing.
CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION...... 1 The Study ...... 1 The Report...... 1 2 THE POLICY CONTEXT ...... 3 Introduction...... 3 National Policy...... 3 Regional Planning Policy Context...... 7 Sub-regional Policy Context...... 11 Regional Planning Context – East Midlands ...... 13 Local Development Plan Context...... 15 Key Points...... 23 3 THE DONCASTER ECONOMY...... 25 Introduction...... 25 The Workplace...... 25 The Labour Market...... 27 Key Points...... 30 4 LOCAL PROPERTY MARKETS...... 31 Introduction...... 31 Doncaster Overview ...... 31 Regional Context ...... 32 Industrial & Distribution Market ...... 33 Market Demand Industrial / Distribution...... 36 Office Market ...... 37 Evidence from Market Players ...... 40 Property Market Conclusions...... 41 5 THE QUANTITY OF EMPLOYMENT LAND ...... 43 Introduction...... 43 The Three Stages to the Analysis...... 43 Stage 1 - Future Employment and the Demand for Space and Land...... 43 The Employment Forecast Findings ...... 46 The Demand for Land ...... 49 Stage 2 - Planned Supply ...... 50 Market Balance...... 52 6 THE QUALITY OF EMPLOYMENT LAND ...... 55 Introduction...... 55 Site Criteria – Existing, Allocated and Potential Sites ...... 55 Site Criteria – Existing Site Specific...... 56 Site Criteria - Allocated and Potential Site Specific...... 56 The Assessment ...... 57 Further Considerations ...... 68 Summary Points ...... 68 7 CONCLUSIONS...... 69 The Requirement for Employment Land ...... 69 Identifying New Sites ...... 69 Recommendations...... 70 Plan, Monitor and Manage...... 70
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Economic Data
Appendix 2 The Strategic Distribution Sector
Appendix 3 Econometric Forecasts
Appendix 4 Business Space Sectors
Appendix 5 Schedule of Planning Permissions 2001 to 2006
Appendix 6 Strategic Distribution Completions
Appendix 7 Site Assessments
Appendix 8 Site Location Plans
Doncaster - Employment Land Study Final Report
1 INTRODUCTION The Study 1.1 Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council commissioned this study in January 2006, as part of the evidence base for the preparation of the employment land1 policies in their forthcoming Local Development Framework and other Development Plan Documents. 1.2 The broad scope of the study, as set out in the brief, is to: Identify the need for employment land in Doncaster up to 2021, and strategies for managing its phasing, particularly taking into account the prospects for growth at Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield (RHADS) and the impact of the FARRRS road scheme. 1.3 This will need to take into account: the suitability for employment purposes of outstanding employment allocations and commitments (i.e. sites with planning permission); the likely viability of existing employment areas continuing in employment use in the event of them being vacated by current occupiers; whether the existing supply of employment land will be sufficient to meet the Borough’s employment needs; the regeneration aspirations of the Borough, particularly in relation to the town centre renaissance and the opportunity at RHADS; and transport accessibility. 1.4 Where sites are lost from the employment land supply, or where allocations are not taken up for employment, the most likely alternative use is housing. Thus, the housing market creates additional pressure that can squeeze out marginal employment uses as land owners are attracted by higher land values. 1.5 The study considers employment land provision from a market perspective. When preparing policies for the emerging Local Development Framework, the Council will also consider socio-economic concerns and sustainability. The Report 1.6 Following this introduction: Chapter 2 sets out the background of existing policy, showing the wider objectives that the Borough needs to consider, and the strategic guidance they need to follow, in deciding on their employment land policies. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the present condition of Doncaster’s economy and property market, establishing the baseline for future change. The next two chapters consider this future change. Chapter 5 deals with the quantity of employment land, forecasting demand and comparing it with supply. Chapter 6 audits the supply in qualitative terms, making recommendations on specific sites and areas. Conclusions are in Chapter 7.
1 Employment space (property and land) in this study refers to the Business Use Classes, B1, B2 and B8 and sui generis uses which occupy similar space. It covers offices and industrial and distribution space. It excludes many activities which do provide employment, but operate in other kinds of space, such as retail, leisure, education and health.
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Doncaster - Employment Land Study Final Report
2 THE POLICY CONTEXT Introduction 2.1 This section presents a review of relevant employment land policies, allocations and sectoral employment promotion at the regional, sub-regional and local levels. 2.2 Regional development policy is provided by the Regional Spatial Strategy and Regional Economic Strategy. At the sub-regional level, South Yorkshire was the recipient of European Union Objective 1 funding, and the Programme has had significant influence on the strategy in South Yorkshire, particularly in relation to the M18 Corridor and the airport. Also of importance at this level is the Northern Way City Region Development Programme for the Sheffield City Region, within which Doncaster lies. 2.3 The RSS and RES for the East Midlands are also considered, due to the proximity and economic linkages shared between northern parts of the East Midlands (in particular Bassetlaw District) and the South Yorkshire Sub-Region. 2.4 At the local level, the Development Plans for Doncaster, as well as neighbouring Sheffield, Rotherham and Bassetlaw Districts are reviewed, together with emerging Local Development Framework documents where appropriate. National Policy 2.5 The maintenance of economic and employment growth is a key component of the Government’s aims for sustainable development. Planning Policy Statement 1 (Delivering Sustainable Development) thus contains guidance on the provision of land to support economic development. 2.6 The general approach described to delivering sustainable development begins with a requirement to: ‘Promote national, regional, sub-regional and local economies by providing, in support of the Regional Economic Strategy, a positive planning framework for sustainable economic growth to support efficient, competitive and innovative business, commercial and industrial sectors.’ 2.7 In doing so, planning authorities are advised to: ‘Recognise the wider sub-regional, regional or national benefits of economic development and consider these alongside any adverse local impacts; Ensure that suitable locations are available for industrial, commercial, retail, public sector (e.g. health and education) tourism and leisure developments, so that the economy can prosper; Provide for improved productivity, choice and competition, particularly when technological and other requirements of modern business are changing rapidly; Recognise that all local economies are subject to change; planning authorities should be sensitive to these changes and the implications for development and growth; and Actively promote and facilitate good quality development, which is sustainable and consistent with their plans.’ 2.8 Until recently, the main document providing specific central Government guidance on employment land was Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG)4 Industrial and Commercial Development and Small Firms, published as long ago as 1992. PPG4 states that development plan policies should provide for choice, flexibility and competition. Authorities should ensure that there is sufficient land available which is
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readily capable of development and well served by infrastructure. They should also ensure that there is a variety of sites available to meet differing needs. 2.9 PPG4 is still in force, but it will shortly be replaced by a new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 4, for which the draft was published for consultation in December 2007. The Ministerial Foreword states the key objectives of the new guidance: ‘This draft Planning Policy Statement aims to provide the tools for regional planning bodies and local planning authorities to plan effectively and proactively for economic growth. As a result of this new policy, regional and local planning bodies will support economic development by ensuring that they understand and take into account what their economies need to remain competitive [and that they are] responsive to the needs of business and factor in the benefits of economic development alongside environmental and social factors.’ 2.10 Paragraph 9 of PPS 4 states the same objective more succinctly: ‘The Government wants planning policy to support economic growth.’
2.11 To pursue this objective, the draft says that regional planning bodies and local planning authorities should: i) Use evidence to plan positively to meet current business needs and cater for future changes, and in particular: o Undertake employment land reviews to assess the supply and demand for employment land; o Where possible, carry out these reviews at the same time as housing land assessments, to ensure that competing land uses are considered together; o Use a wide evidence base, including market information and economic data; o Plan to accommodate and support existing economic sectors, new or emerging sectors, clustering and knowledge-based and high-technology sectors; o Locate key distribution networks and freight-generating developments so as to minimise carbon emissions; o Aim to locate larger office developments in town centres or edge-of-centre sites, consistent with the sequential approach in PPS 6, except where offices are ancillary to other economic activities located elsewhere; o Where appropriate, collaborate with other authorities; o Where markets cross administrative boundaries, plan on a sub-regional basis; ii) Recognise the needs of business, providing the flexibility to cater for varied and unforeseen needs; and in particular; o Use criteria-based policies to identify new employment sites and where necessary to safeguard existing employment sites from other uses; o Wherever possible avoid designating sites for single or restricted use classes; o Cater for start-up and SME accommodation as well as larger units and consider how the authority can deliver development, using interventions such as land assembly;
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o Avoid carrying forward existing allocations; if there is no reasonable prospect of a site being used for economic development during the plan period, it should be actively considered for other uses; iii) Aim for effective and efficient use of land, in particular: o Use market signals in plan-making and decision-taking: ‘planning authorities should take into account price differentials between land allocated to different use classes, when deciding on the most productive use of land’; o Prioritise previously developed land and encourage new uses for vacant and derelict buildings; o Take a constructive approach to change of use where there is no likelihood of demonstrable harm; o Set maximum parking standards for non-residential development at the local level. iv) Secure a high-quality and sustainable environment, in particular: o Seek to ensure economic development is of high quality and inclusive design and addresses climate change and the natural and historic environment v) Take a positive approach to development control, in particular: o Where proposals do not have the specific support of plan policies, assess them using a range of evidence and consider them favourably unless there is good reason to believe that the economic, social and/or environmental costs of development are likely to outweigh the benefits; o Where proposals accord with the plan, they should normally be approved. o Ensure that development control decision take full account of the benefits of development; o Hold early discussion with developers about major or controversial proposals; o When refusing planning applications, set out clear reasons why. 2.12 Government guidance relating to employment land, is also given in Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 3, Housing, published in November 2006. PPS3 makes two mentions of the transfer of employment land to housing. The first mention (in paragraph 38) is brief: ‘Options for accommodating new housing growth may include, for example, re-use of vacant and derelict sites or industrial and commercial sites for providing housing as part of mixed-use town centre development.’ 2.13 The second mention of employment land in PPS3 is in the section on Effective Use of Land. This section states that, as a key policy objective, Local Planning Authorities ‘should continue to make effective use of land by re-using land that has been previously developed’. It goes on to say (in paragraphs 43-44) that Local Development documents should include strategies, targets and trajectories for bringing previously developed land into housing use, and lists ways of implementing these, which include: ‘Considering whether sites that are currently allocated for industrial or commercial use could be more appropriately re-allocated for housing development’. 2.14 PPS3 offers far less specific guidance on the release of employment sites to housing than did the revised PPG3. There is nothing in PPS3 to replace the clear-cut criteria in the now cancelled paragraph 42(a). In fact, PPS3 has reverted to the position set out in paragraph 42 of PPG3, before the insertion of paragraph 42(a), which simply encouraged local planning authorities to review their non-housing allocations when reviewing their development plan and consider whether some of this land might better be used for housing or mixed use developments. Roger Tym & Partners with King Sturge M986, December 2008 5 Doncaster - Employment Land Study Final Report
2.15 Although a footnote to paragraphs 43-44 of PPS3 makes reference to the ODPM Guidance Note on Employment Land Reviews (2004), this additional guidance does not fill the gap. The Note provides detailed lists of suggested criteria and scoring methods to help assess employment sites, but no simple statement of what question the assessment should aim to answer. 2.16 In summary, PPS3 will likely make it easier to protect employment land, because it removes both the presumption that authorities should consider favourably any proposed transfer to housing and the tests that sites have to pass in order to be safeguarded for employment. But it also introduces greater uncertainty, in that it provides no clear-cut criteria for retaining or releasing sites. 2.17 National policy related to office development (commercial and public agency) is also provided by PPS6 (Planning for Town Centres), which provides guidance on the location of new retail, office and leisure developments. The Government’s key objective for town centres is to promote their vitality and viability by planning for the growth of, promoting and enhancing existing centres by focusing development in such centres and encouraging a wide range of services in a good environment, accessible to all. 2.18 Paragraph 2.16 urges LPAs to work with stakeholders and the community to assess the need for new floorspace for retail, leisure and other town centre uses, taking account of both quantitative and qualitative considerations. Paragraphs 2.19 to 2.22 of PPS6 then proceed to highlight the need for high quality and inclusive design, the importance of accessibility and safety and the need for efficient use of land through the promotion of higher-density mixed-use development. 2.19 The physical capacity of centres to accommodate new office development and the town centre’s role in the hierarchy are relevant considerations for planning for new office development. Subject to other planning considerations, PPS6 encourages residential or office development as appropriate uses above ground floor retail, leisure or other facilities within centres. The inclusion of housing in out-of-centre mixed-use developments should not, in itself, justify additional floorspace for main town centre uses in such locations. 2.20 PPG13 (Transport) also contains guidance on ‘airport-related’ development, some of which lies within our definition of employment uses, and so is relevant to the Doncaster context and the future direction of the Robin Hood Airport. In considering development at airports, LPAs must also consider, in the preparation of plans and determination of applications, ‘the extent to which development is related to the operation of the airport, and is sustainable given the prevailing and planned levels of public transport’. As such, a ‘hierarchy’ is established (although not explicitly identified as such): 1. ‘Operational needs of the airport’ (runway, terminal facilities, aircraft maintenance, distribution facilities relating to goods passing through the airport); 2. ‘Related development appropriate to airports’ (transport interchanges, administrative offices, parking) 3. ‘Less directly related development’ (hotels, conference/leisure, offices, retail – for these activities, ‘the relationship to the airport related business should be explicitly justified, be of an appropriate scale relevant to core airport related business and be assessed against relevant policy elsewhere in planning policy guidance’); and 4. ‘Non-related airport development’, which ‘should be assessed against relevant policy elsewhere in planning guidance’
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Regional Planning Policy Context Regional Spatial Strategy for Yorkshire and the Humber 2.21 Regional planning guidance for Doncaster Borough comes from the Yorkshire and Humber Plan, the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) for Yorkshire and the Humber, adopted in 2008. It aims to guide development over the next 15 to 20 years. This replaced the RSS for Yorkshire and the Humber published in December 2004. Specific allocations for employment land development are not made in the RSS; rather the document provides a spatial overview. 2.22 Sustainable development is the core principle underpinning the Plan, reflected in the Vision and Core Approach. The vision set and core approach set out in section 2 is as follows: In Yorkshire and the Humber over the next 15 to 20 years there will be more sustainable patterns and forms of development, investment and activity, and a greater emphasis on matching needs with opportunities and managing the environment as a key resource. 2.23 Policy YH1 sets out the overall approach to development, and states a number of ways in which ‘Growth and change will be managed across places and communities in the Yorkshire and Humber Region in order to achieve sustainable development and the Spatial Vision’. Plans, strategies, investment decisions and programmes should aim to: transform economic, environmental and social conditions in the Regeneration Priority Areas – the older industrialised parts of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the Humber; manage and spread the benefits of continued growth of the Leeds economy as a European centre of financial and business services. 2.24 The policy also confirms the key role which the Humber Ports play in the regional economy, stating that plans, strategies, investment decisions and programmes should aim to ‘optimise the opportunities provided by the Humber Ports as an international trade gateway for the region and the country’. This port complex includes access to deep water facilities and the UK’s most inland port. The Humber Ports enable the Region to access national and international markets’. 2.25 Policy YH3 states that realising the Plan’s policies requires wide-ranging collaboration and co-operation. The key issues and opportunities for joint working in the Region and beyond are set out. Of particular relevance is the requirement for plans, strategies, investment details and programmes to be based on effective collaboration between areas within the Region, particularly to: support the renewal and regeneration of urban and rural areas; balance housing with current and future employment opportunities. 2.26 The Plan requires development, investment and activity to be focused on the Regional and Sub Regional Cities and Towns listed in Policy YH4 ‘Regional Cities and Sub Regional Cities and Towns should be the prime focus for housing, employment, shopping, leisure, education, health and cultural activities and facilities in the region. Regional Cities and Sub Regional Cities and Towns will be transformed into attractive, cohesive and safe places where people want to live, work, invest, and spend time in. Plans, strategies, investment decisions and programmes should achieve a radically more modern and wider range of housing and employment premises’. Doncaster is identified as one of the eleven Sub Regional Cities and Towns as part of the Policy. 2.27 Policy YH7 provides the framework for choosing locations within and, if necessary, adjoining a city or town once those strategic decisions about how much development should be focused there have been made. After determining the distribution of development between cities and towns in accordance with policies YH4, YH5 and YH6, local planning authorities should allocate sites by giving:
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