Out-Law News 2 min. read
25 Aug 2015, 3:32 pm
Warwick District Council (WDC) has resolved to ask for examination of its local plan to be suspended to allow unmet housing needs to be addressed, after a planning inspector rejected a proposal to adopt the plan and commit to its early review.
Examining inspector Kevin Ward wrote to WDC in June (9-page / 168 KB PDF), recommending non-adoption or withdrawal of the Warwick District Local Plan (WDLP). Ward found that there was an unmet housing need in the Coventry and Warwickshire sub region of at least 234 homes per year. The inspector rejected a proposal from WDC and surrounding local authorities in its housing market area to adopt their local plans and commit to their early review following collaborative work to address the unmet need.
Members of WDC voted at a meeting this month to write to Ward and request that examination be suspended for up to six months, to allow members of the Coventry and Warwickshire Joint Committee for Economic Growth and Prosperity to adjust their draft local plans to address the unmet need. A report prepared for the meeting (16-page / 168 KB PDF) said withdrawal of the WDLP would delay the delivery of a number of local plans in the Coventry and Warwickshire sub region. "This does not accord with the government's aspirations to put local plans in place as soon as possible", said the report.
The UK government last month set a deadline of early 2017 for councils to produce local plans. A ministerial statement from planning and housing minister Brandon Lewis said inspectors should highlight significant issues with local plans "at an early enough stage to give councils a full opportunity to respond" and reiterated government guidance that committing to an early review of a local plan could allow it to proceed to adoption without "matters which are not critical to the plan's soundness or legal competence as a whole" from causing unnecessary delay.
In a letter to the Planning Inspectorate on the same day, communities secretary Greg Clark commended the "pragmatism and flexibility" of some planning inspectors in their examination of local plans but said he had seen "examples of where councils are being advised to withdraw plans without being given the option to undertake further work to address the shortcomings identified at examination".
Ward's approach to the WDLP contrasted with that of planning inspector Paul Crysell, who found the West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland Joint Local Plan (WDWPJLP) sound last week, subject to modifications including a commitment to its early review.
Crysell had agreed for examination of the WDWPJLP to be suspended after finding evidence provided in support of housing targets of 617 to 661 homes per year to be "unconvincing". Following further work, West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council increased the housing to 775 homes per year.
According to his examination report (45-page / 335 KB PDF), Crysell was satisfied that the revised figure provided "a reasonable estimate of the amount of housing required during the plan period" and that "it is likely that most of the main sources of housing supply will be delivered". However, the inspector identified a likely shortfall of around 645 homes over the period of the plan and recommended a review by 2021 "to ensure provision of sufficient housing land for the remainder of the plan period".