Five Year Housing Land Supply Position Statement 2019 Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 1 1 Status and Content of this Document ............................................................................................. 2 2 Local Context ................................................................................................................................... 3 3 National Policy ................................................................................................................................ 4 4 Identifying the Housing Requirement - Standard Methodology .................................................... 6 5 Previous Delivery .......................................................................................................................... 10 6 Housing requirement for next five years within County Durham ................................................ 11 7 The supply of Deliverable Sites: Delivering the New Housing Required – Approach to determining the supply of housing ............................................................................................... 12 8 Five Year Supply Calculation ......................................................................................................... 17 9 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 19 10 Monitoring ................................................................................................................................ 20 Appendix 1 – Housing Trajectory .......................................................................................................... 21 Executive Summary The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires local planning authorities to identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing against their housing requirements set out in adopted strategic policies, or against their local housing need (LHN) [using the standard method for calculating local housing need] where the strategic policies are more than five years old. Within County Durham all the extant development plans are more than five years old and their housing figures need revising so the starting point for calculating land supply will be LHN identified in the emerging development plan defined using the new standard method. The “Pre-Submission Version” of the County Durham Plan (CDP)1 (June 2019) is currently at Examination in Public (EiP) and identifies a housing need figure of 1,308 (dpa). This statement sets out Durham County Council’s assessment of the housing land supply position in Durham as at 1st April 2019. The five years covered by the assessment is the period between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2024. County Durham currently has 6.37 years supply of deliverable housing land as shown below. A 5% buffer to ensure choice and competition in the market for land has been applied, as the result of the Government’s 2018 Housing Delivery Test is 116%2. Table 1-Five-Year Supply of Housing Land for Durham at 1st April 2019 A Total Deliverable Housing Land Supply (1st April 8,745 2019 – 31st March 2024) B Five Year Housing Requirement (1st April 2019 – 6,867 31st March 2024) C Surplus/Deficit in requirement (A – B) 1,878 D Number of Years Supply of Housing 6.37 years The next update to Durham’s housing land supply position is expected to be spring/summer 2020 and will have a base date of 1st April 2020. 1 https://durhamcc.objective.co.uk/portal/planning/cdpexam/ 2 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/housing-delivery-test-2018-measurement 1 | P a g e 1 Status and Content of this Document Paragraph 73 of the updated National Planning Policy Framework3 (NPPF) (2019), states that: “Local planning authorities should identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing against their housing requirement set out in adopted strategic policies, or against their local housing need where the strategic policies are more than five years old.” This position statement meets that requirement to demonstrate a supply of deliverable sites and sets out the approach to meeting housing need in County Durham. This document sets out County Durham’s housing land supply position and explains how this position complies with the requirements of national policy and guidance. The document represents the current housing land supply position as of 1st April 2019. The relevant five-year housing land supply period therefore covers the period between 1st April 2019 and 31st March 2024. In accordance with the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG)4 the housing trajectory within Appendix 1 provides details of all sites that are expected to deliver new housing units over the plan period. For each site, details are included of the current planning status, the number of homes completed, homes under construction and those expected to be built. For sites which do not benefit from full planning permission, information and evidence is included within the trajectory where those sites are expected to deliver housing completions within the next five years. The report sets out the 5-year housing land supply calculation and identifies the appropriate buffer (5%) and that there is no shortfall to address. Section 8 confirms that there is a 5-year supply of deliverable housing land. 3 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-planning-policy-framework--2 4 Planning Practice Guidance Paragraph: 026 Reference ID: 3-026-20190722 (Revision date: 22 July 2019) 2 | P a g e 2 Local Context Durham County Council has recently submitted (June 2019) its development plan (CDP) for examination. Within County Durham all the extant development plans are more than five years old and their housing figures need revising so the starting point for calculating land supply will be local housing need (LHN). The “Pre-Submission Version” of the CDP identifies a housing need figure of 1,308 (dpa) (see Section 4). 3 | P a g e 3 National Policy The NPPF outlines (para 59) the Government’s objective of significantly boosting the supply of homes and ensuring that a sufficient amount and variety of land can come forward where it is needed, and that the needs of groups with specific housing requirements are addressed and that land with permission is developed without unnecessary delay. It requires (para 73) local planning authorities (LPAs) to identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing against their housing requirements set out in adopted strategic policies, or against their local housing need [using the standard method for calculating local housing need] where the strategic policies are more than five years old. A buffer is required to be added to this five-year requirement, the level of which is determined by the Housing Delivery Test (HDT) based on local planning authorities’ recent housing delivery record. A default 5% buffer is added to ensure choice and competition in the market for land, and in areas where there has been significant under delivery of housing over the previous three years, this is increased to 20% to improve the prospect of achieving the planned supply. In both instances the buffer is brought forward from later in the plan period so that the overall housing target in the plan is not affected. The PPG sets out5 the type of information that assessments should include as detailed below: • for sites with detailed planning permission, details of numbers of homes under construction and completed each year; and where delivery has either exceeded or not progressed as expected, a commentary indicating the reasons for acceleration or delays to commencement on site or effects on build out rates; • for small sites, details of their current planning status and record of completions and homes under construction by site; • for sites with outline consent or allocated in adopted plans (or with permission in principle identified on Part 2 of brownfield land registers, and where included in the 5 year housing land supply), information and clear evidence that there will be housing completions on site within 5 years, including current planning status, timescales and progress towards detailed permission; • permissions granted for windfall development by year and how this compares with the windfall allowance; • details of demolitions and planned demolitions which will have an impact on net completions; • total net completions from the plan base date by year (broken down into types of development e.g. affordable housing); and • the 5 year housing land supply calculation clearly indicating buffers and shortfalls and the number of years of supply. The updated NPPF contains new definitions within Annex 2: Glossary. To be considered deliverable, sites for housing should be available now, offer a suitable location for development now, and be achievable with a realistic prospect that housing will be delivered on the site within five years. In particular: 5 Planning Practice Guidance Paragraph: 014 Reference ID: 68-014-20190722 (Revision date: 22 July 2019) 4 | P a g e a) sites which do not involve major development and have planning permission, and all sites with detailed planning permission, should be considered deliverable until permission