South Oxfordshire District Council Local Plan 2031 REFINED OPTIONS JUNE 2020 South Oxfordshire District Council SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE LOCAL PLAN HOUSING LAND SUPPLY STATEMENT 2020 I Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 2. National and Local Policy ................................................................................. 2 National Policy ..................................................................................................... 2 3. Calculating five Year Housing Land Requirement ............................................ 7 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 7 Local Housing Need (Standard Method) .............................................................. 7 Completions and shortfall .................................................................................... 8 Housing Delivery Test .......................................................................................... 8 Buffer ................................................................................................................... 9 Total Five Year Housing Land Requirement ........................................................ 9 4. Housing Supply .............................................................................................. 10 Completions ....................................................................................................... 10 Detailed Permission ........................................................................................... 10 Outline Permission / Resolution to Grant / Allocations ....................................... 11 Student Accommodation .................................................................................... 12 Residential Institutions ....................................................................................... 12 Permitted Development ..................................................................................... 12 Windfalls ............................................................................................................ 13 Assessment of Deliverable Sites ....................................................................... 14 Supply of deliverable sites ................................................................................. 15 5. Five Year Land Supply position ...................................................................... 17 Appendix A: Site Delivery Assessment ................................................................. 18 Major sites ......................................................................................................... 18 Minor sites ......................................................................................................... 25 Totals ................................................................................................................. 46 Appendix B: Site lead in Time analysis ................................................................. 47 Appendix C: Site build out rate analysis ................................................................ 50 Appendix D- Communal accommodation ratios .................................................... 52 Student accommodation ratio ............................................................................ 52 Communal accommodation ratio ....................................................................... 52 i 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. This statement sets out South Oxfordshire District Council’s (the council) housing land supply position for decision making on planning applications. It explains the council’s approach and method to calculating the five-year housing land supply, provides an assessment of deliverable land within the district and the council’s five-year housing land supply position. 1.2. This document represents the housing land supply position as of the 1 April 2020. The relevant five-year housing land supply period therefore covers the period between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025.This Statement provides a year by year and site by site trajectory of the expected housing delivery in the district between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025. 1.3. This document shows that the council can demonstrate a 9.15-year supply of housing land. 1.4. Under the revised National Planning Policy Framework (2019)1 (the NPPF), the council can seek to agree its land supply statement with the Secretary of State through an Annual Position Statement. This is not such a statement, and the council does not intend to submit this document to the Secretary of State. This does not prohibit the council from being able to establish a land supply but does not provide the council the year-long, agreed position set out in Paragraph 74 of the NPPF. 1.5. In addition, the council has produced a separate Housing Land Supply Statement to support the emerging South Oxfordshire Local Plan. The Local Plan Statement is not intended to be used for decision making purposes at this time. 1 NPPF, Paragraph 74 www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework/5-delivering-a- sufficient-supply-of-homes 1 2. NATIONAL AND LOCAL POLICY 2.1. This Chapter summarises the relevant national and local policy in regard to housing land supply. National Policy 2.2. Paragraph 73 of the NPPF2 sets out local planning authorities’ responsibility 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 requirement set out in adopted strategic policies, or against their local housing need where the strategic policies are more than five years old.” 2.3. The NPPF explains the local housing need is as follows: “The number of homes identified as being needed through the application of the standard method set out in national planning guidance (or, in the context of preparing strategic policies only, this may be calculated using a justified alternative approach as provided for in paragraph 60 of this Framework).” 2.4. The PPG provides further guidance stating that housing requirement figures set out in adopted strategic policies should be used as the starting point for calculating the five-year land supply figure where the plan was adopted in the last five years, or where strategic housing policies have been reviewed within the last five years and found not to need updating. In other circumstances, the starting point for calculating the five-year land supply will be local housing need calculated using the standard method.3 2.5. Paragraph 73 of the NPPF goes on to state that the housing requirement for housing land supply should also include an additional “buffer”, depending on the local circumstances: a) 5% to ensure choice and competition in the market for land; or b) 10% where the local planning authority wishes to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable sites through an annual position statement or recently adopted plan, to account for any fluctuations in the market during that year; or 2 NPPF, Paragraph 73 www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework/5-delivering-a- sufficient-supply-of-homes 3 PPG, Paragraph 005 www.gov.uk/guidance/housing-supply-and-delivery 2 c) 20% where there has been significant under delivery of housing over the previous three years4, to improve the prospect of achieving the planned supply. 2.6. The PPG further states that to ensure there is a realistic prospect of achieving the planned level of housing supply, the local planning authority should always add an appropriate buffer, applied to the requirement in the first 5 years, bringing forward additional sites from later in the plan period.5 2.7. The PPG also provides guidance on how to consider past under and over delivery in calculating the five-year housing requirement. The PPG6 states for under delivery that: “The level of deficit or shortfall will need to be calculated from the base date of the adopted plan and should be added to the plan requirements for the next 5-year period (the Sedgefield approach), then the appropriate buffer should be applied. If a strategic policy- making authority wishes to deal with past under delivery over a longer period, then a case may be made as part of the plan-making and examination process rather than on a case by case basis on appeal.” 2.8. The PPG7 states for over delivery that: “Where areas deliver more completions than required, the additional supply can be used to offset any shortfalls against requirements from previous years.” 2.9. When the standard method for assessing local housing need is used to form the housing requirement, rather than adopted housing requirement in an up to date Local Plan, the PPG8 advises “Step 2 of the standard method factors in past under-delivery as part of the affordability ratio, so there is no requirement to specifically address under- delivery separately when establishing the minimum annual local housing need figure” 2.10.In regard to emerging planning policies relating to housing requirement, Paragraph 48 of the NPPF states that the council may give weight to relevant policies in emerging plans under certain circumstances: 4 A result below 85% on the Housing Delivery Test. NPPF, Footnote 39 www.gov.uk/guidance/national-planning-policy-framework/5-delivering-a-sufficient-supply-of- homes#footnote39 5 Paragraph 22, Housing Supply and Delivery, Planning Practice Guidance, available from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/housing-supply-and-delivery#houisng-reqt