The inspector wrote to the Council and recommended that the plan could not be adopted. He recommended that the Council withdraw the plan to enable it to remedy the identified defects and said that this would include the preparation of a joint Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) with other local authorities in the Coventry Housing Market Area.
The inspector said that it was "clear" that the Council had not ignored its duty to cooperate and that it had "actively sought to discharge that duty on an ongoing basis". However, he said that the evidence did not show that the cooperation with neighbouring councils had fulfilled requirements to be constructive or effective.
"In this instance the Council accepts that the level of housing provision is a strategic priority planning issue that crosses local boundaries," the inspector said.
"However, it has not collaborated with its neighbours to produce a joint SHMA for the housing market area even though paragraph 159 of the [National Planning Policy] Framework says it should and even though there are a number of factors, enumerated above, which point to the desirability of it doing so," he said.
The Council had previously drafted a Core Strategy which provided for 33,500 new homes and was found sound in 2010. However, it withdrew the plan and the current draft only provides for 11,373 new homes. The Council said the previous plan became "undeliverable" when Nuneaton and Bedford Borough Council withdrew from its commitment to provide 3,500 homes.
The Council said in a statement that it would now undertake the work recommended by the inspector and that the plan could then go back before the inspector.
