Out-Law News 2 min. read
02 Jun 2015, 2:46 pm
Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council submitted their local plans to the communities secretary for examination last March. Together the plans proposed the delivery of 33,000 new homes in the area by 2031.
Examining planning inspectors Laura Graham and Alan Wood wrote to the councils last month providing their preliminary conclusions on the local plans. Their joint letter (5-page / 256 KB PDF) to the councils recommended that they took the time to "revisit the sustainability appraisals" underpinning the strategy in their plans to fully consider all alternatives for the development of the area. Following further consideration, the inspectors said the councils should suggest modifications that would "either align the plans with the [councils' joint sustainable development strategy review (SDSR)]" or more fully explain the reasons for departing from that strategy".
The councils had produced the SDSR and a review of the inner green belt boundary around Cambridge during the local planning process. They had stated a preferred sequential approach of looking first to deliver homes at sites within Cambridge or at the edge of Cambridge before considering sites in new settlements and villages. The SDSR had also noted that locating development on the edge of Cambridge would have significant advantages in terms of sustainability. However, the Councils had rejected the option of releasing large amounts of green belt land around the urban edge for development, opting instead to remove some small sites from the green belt and to direct much of the proposed housing to new settlements.
The inspectors said they had "found it difficult to understand how the various dimensions of sustainable development were assessed" by the councils or "how the assessment of 'importance [of various sites] to [the] green belt" had been assessed in the green belt review. They said the Councils needed to make clear that they had addressed the challenges of making development at new settlements "as sustainable as possible", noting that the available evidence suggested that there was "a significant funding gap in relation to infrastructure provision".
"We are concerned that an apparent inconsistency between the SDSR and the plans' reliance on meeting development needs in new settlements may lead to a finding of unsoundness," wrote the inspectors. "Without further work we are not confident that we could recommend modifications to overcome these concerns."
The inspectors also expressed concerns about the councils' assessment of the need for new housing in the area. In a departure from the government's Planning Practice Guidance, the councils had not used national household populations as the starting point for their assessment. The inspectors accepted the Councils' explanation that national household projections for the Cambridge area were "implausibly low due to the migration methodology used". However, they found that the Councils' own assessment was "at the lower end of the likely range of possible levels of need to 2031".
The letter said the inspectors were particularly concerned that "market signals, particularly in relation to affordability" had not been fully taken into account in the housing assessment, and that no evidence had been provided to suggest that the councils had considered whether an increase in the proposed housing numbers might help provide sufficient affordable homes.
Planning expert Elizabeth Wiseman of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "Whilst it is clearly disappointing that further work is needed on both councils' local plans it gives them an opportunity at an early stage to get the local plans right. If the opportunity is taken to fully grasp the issues raised by the Planning Inspectorate, the result should be local plans that will be delivered and develop strong, sustainable housing growth locally."