WINDFALL ALLOWANCE

1 Purpose of this paper

1.1 At the Local Plan Examination session on Wednesday 11th October 2017, the Inspector asked for a paper to:

 identify the contribution that windfall sites have made to housing completions historically; and  identify a reasonable allowance for the contribution that windfall sites will make to future housing completions (if the Joint Committee wishes to include a windfall sites allowance).

2 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

2.1 Annex 2 of the NPPF indicates that windfall sites are “sites which have not been specifically identified as available in the Local Plan process. They normally comprise previously- developed sites that have unexpectedly become available.”

2.2 Paragraph 48 of the NPPF indicates that “local planning authorities may make an allowance for windfall sites in the five-year supply if they have compelling evidence that such sites have consistently become available in the local area and will continue to provide a reliable source of supply. Any allowance should be realistic having regard to the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment, historic windfall delivery rates and expected future trends and should not include residential gardens.”

3 Historic windfall delivery rates

3.1 The Table set out below, shows the rate of housing delivery on sites of 9 dwellings or less in Boston Borough over the last 10 years.

Year Total number of Number of dwellings % of total dwellings dwellings built (gross) built on sites of 9 or built on sites of 9 or less less 2007/08 519 93 18 2008/09 288 103 36 2009/10 139 53 38 2010/11 186 50 27 2011/12 98 10 10 2012/13 73 40 55 2013/14 183 34 19 2014/15 120 30 25 2015/16 189 67 35 2016/17 367 61 17 TOTAL 2,162 541 25

3.2 It shows that, on average:

 25% of all completions have been on such sites; and  54 dwellings have been delivered on such sites per year.

3.3 The Table set out below shows the rate of housing delivery on sites of 9 dwellings or less in South Holland District over the last 10 years.

Year Total number of Number of dwellings % of total dwellings dwellings built (gross) built on sites of 9 or built on sites of 9 or less less 2007/08 560 122 22 2008/09 418 103 25 2009/10 282 51 18 2010/11 202 56 28 2011/12 167 39 23 2012/13 200 31 16 2013/14 270 77 29 2014/15 302 56 19 2015/16 293 52 18 2016/17 266 58 22 TOTAL 2,960 645 22

3.4 It shows that, on average:

 22% of all completions have been on such sites; and  65 dwellings have been delivered on such sites per year.

3.5 Taking this information at face value, one could expect that windfall allowances of 54 dwellings per annum in Boston Borough and 65 dwellings per annum in South Holland District would be reasonable. However, some of these completions will have been on residential gardens and, given that the NPPF specifically indicates that such sites should not be included in a windfall allowance, an appropriate reduction in these numbers will be necessary.

3.6 The housing completion data of Boston Borough and South Holland District Councils does not permit the analysis of the above numbers to identify how many were on residential gardens. However, data from the South East Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (April 2017) [CD/Hsg/018] (SHLAA) can provide an estimate of the proportion that may need to be discounted.

4 Evidence from the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment regarding an appropriate discount for residential gardens

4.1 The SHLAA identifies 21 sites in Boston Borough which are either:

 located within the settlement boundaries of the Sub-Regional Centre, Main Service Centres or Minor Service Centres, classified as developable, but are too small to be allocated (i.e. delivering 9 or fewer dwellings); or  located within the settlement boundaries of Other Service Centres and Settlements, and classified as undevelopable only because the Local Plan does not seek to make allocations in such settlements.

4.2 These sites are as follows:

Site Site address Number Residential reference of garden? dwellings Fen004 36 Witham Bank West, Boston 9 Yes Fis019 Land to the north of Ward Crescent, Boston 4 No Ski002 Land to the south of Vauxhall Road, Boston 4 No Ski003 Land to the north-east of Freiston Road, Boston 8 No Sts002 Land to the west of Frampton Place, Boston 4 No Wit009 Land to the north of Fountain Lane, Boston 9 No Wyb040 Disused petrol station, Road, Boston 8 No Bic001 Land to the west of Drury Lane, Bicker 3 Yes Bic023 Sharpe's Paddock, off Morley Lane, Bicker 3 No Bic027 Land to the rear of Madeira Lodge, Drury Lane, Bicker 5 Yes Sut008 Land to the north of Post Office Lane, Sutterton (part 8 No without planning permission) Wig001 Jasmine House & works, Asperton Road, Wigtoft 6 No Wig002 Land to east of Asperton Road, Wigtoft 6 No Ben001 Land to the west of Main Road, Benington 6 No Ben002 Land to the west of Main Road, Benington 2 No Fos002 Land to the south of Old Main Road, Fosdyke 2 No Fre002 Land to the west of Church Road, Freiston 2 No Fre004 Land to the west of Butterwick Road, Freiston 16 No Fre013 Land to the south of Park Lane, Freiston 7 No Fre014 Land to the east of Church Road, Freiston 5 No Swi014 Land to the west of Brown’s Drove, Swineshead Bridge 10 Yes TOTAL 127 Total on residential gardens 27

4.3 This evidence shows that 21% of the potential dwellings would be provided on residential gardens (27÷127 x 100=21.3), and therefore suggests that only 79% of the historic windfall rate should be counted. This gives a future windfall allowance of 43 per annum for Boston Borough (54 x 0.79=42.66).

4.4 The SHLAA identifies 28 sites in South Holland District which are either:

 located within the settlement boundaries of the Sub-Regional Centre, Main Service Centres or Minor Service Centres, classified as developable, but are too small to be allocated (i.e. delivering 9 or fewer dwellings); or  located within the settlement boundaries of Other Service Centres and Settlements, and classified as undevelopable only because the Local Plan does not seek to make allocations in such settlements.

4.5 These sites are as follows: Site Site address Number Residential reference of garden? dwellings Cow007 Land to the west of Backgate, 8 No Cow008 Land to the west of Mill Drove, Cowbit 13 No Cow013 Land to the rear of 55 Backgate, Cowbit 2 No Cow014 Land to the west of Mill Drove South, Cowbit 8 No Fle012 Land to the east of Lowgate, Fleet Hargate 7 Yes Fle017 Land to the north of Old Main Road, Fleet Hargate 9 No Geh001 Land to the east of North Road, 4 No Geh013 Land to the west of Station Road, Gedney Hill 3 No Gos002 Land to the north of Risegate Road, 13 No Risegate Gos013 Land to the east of Beck Bank, Gosberton Clough 3 Yes Gos014 Land to the east of Wargate Way, Gosberton 9 Yes Hob012 Land to the south of Drove Road, Drove 8 No Mou017 Land to the north of Roman Road, Moulton Chapel 7 No Mou037 Land to the south of Hall Lane, Moulton Seas End, 5 No Spalding. (Between 1-15) Sur008 Land to the south of Seas End Road, Seas End 4 No Sur014 Land to the north of Seas End Road, Surfleet Seas End 9 No Wha021 Land to the west of Stockwell Gate, 5 No Wsn011 Land to the east of Pinfold Lane, Weston 6 No Ged020 Stonegate Farmhouse, Stonegate, Gedney 8 No Ged006 Land to the east of Stonegate, Gedney 3 Yes Ged027 Land to the south of Main Road, Gedney Drove End 3 No Hob001 Land to the north of Drove Road, Holbeach Drove 8 No Hob012 Land to the south of Drove Road, Holbeach Drove 8 No Mou037 Land to the south of Hall Lane, Moulton Seas End 5 No Pin063 Land to the west of Six House Bank, West Pinchbeck 7 No Wha015 Land to the north & east of Washway Road, Saracens 10 Yes Head Sue002 Land to the west of Broadgate Road, Sutton Saint 8 No Edmund Wsn020 Land off Broadgate, Weston Hills 3 Yes TOTAL 186 Total on residential gardens 35

4.6 This evidence shows that 19% of the potential dwellings would be provided on residential gardens (35÷186 x 100=18.8), and therefore suggests that only 81% of the historic windfall rate should be counted. This gives a future windfall allowance of 53 per annum for South Holland District (65 x 0.81=52.65). 5 Expected future tends

5.1 The historic windfall delivery rates identified in section 3 of this paper have been achieved in a period when the policies of Boston Borough and South Holland District Councils have restricted supply in smaller settlements.

5.2 In the case of Boston Borough, since February 2006, 22 villages have been subject to an effective embargo on new housing development imposed by Policy H4 of the Boston Borough Interim Plan (Non-statutory development control policy) (February 2016)[CD/LP/011]. These villages are Algarkirk, Amber Hill, Benington, Bicker, Fishtoft, Fosdyke, Frampton, Frampton West, Freiston, Haltoft End, Holland Fen, Hubbert’s Bridge, Kirton End, Kirton Holme, Langrick Bridge, Leake Commonside, Leverton, Swineshead Bridge, Wigtoft, Wrangle, Wrangle Common and Wyberton.

5.3 In the case of South Holland District, since July 2006, 25 villages have been subject to an effective embargo on new housing development imposed by Policy HS7 of the South Holland Local Plan (July 2006) [CD/LP/012]. These villages are Gedney Church End, Gedney Black Lion End, , Gedney Drove End, Gosberton Clough, Gosberton Risegate, Holbeach Drove, Holbeach Hurn, Holbeach St Johns, Holbeach St Marks, Little Sutton, Lutton, Moulton Seas End, Nene Terrace, Northgate & West Pinchbeck, , Saracens Head, Shepeau Stow, Surfleet, , Throckenholt, Tongue End, Weston Hills, Whaplode Drove and Whaplode St Catherine.

5.4 The adoption of the South East Lincolnshire Local Plan will overturn this embargo, and is likely to release pent-up demand and create a significant increase in the numbers of new dwellings built in these 47 villages.

6 Conclusions

6.1 The Joint Strategic Planning Committee considers that the historic windfall delivery rate data presented in section 3 of this paper demonstrates that windfall sites have consistently become available in both Boston Borough and South Holland District. The Committee further considers that evidence from the SHLAA in section 4, and information on expected future trends in section 5 strongly suggests that windfall sites will continue to provide a reliable source of supply.

6.2 The Committee considers that realistic allowances which take account of the available evidence and exclude residential gardens are:

 43 per annum for Boston Borough; and  53 per annum for South Holland District