I just have a query relating to para 73 and footnote 38 really.
We all know you have to maintain 5YS against either your plan
requirement if your plan is up to date or against your need (standard
method) if your plan is out of date.
However, if you are evidencing your new plan at Examination, it has
not been adopted yet. So the Inspector is assessing whether you WILL
have a 5YS 'at adoption' based on your new plan requirement and land
supply including allocations in that plan.
When we had our current plan Examined in 2016 this got messy at the
Examination because we provided a 5YS position which was based on the
situation 'at the point of adoption' (which we assessed to be about 6
months after Examination). However, it was argued at the Examination
that the Inspector should be assessing what the 5YS was 'now' ie. for
the current monitoring year (we were challenged that we should have a
5YS at the previous 1 April in order for our plan to be sound). The
Inspector did not provide a decision either way at to which base date
to use, but asked us to provide supply information for both scenarios
and fortunately concluded that we had a 5YS whether we used the
current position or the one with the new plan in place.
On reading para 73 and footnote 38 there are now 3 buffers. 5% for
normal circumstances. 10% through an annual position statement or in a
recently adopted plan and 20% if the HDT is failed.
But it is not clear in the NPPF how this is done for the purposes of
Examination of a new plan. Do you use a 10% buffer because you are
setting out the position of a new plan and 'at adoption' it will be a
'recently adopted' plan? It would seem crazy to apply a buffer based
on previous HDT results because they are measuring against a
requirement which would be irrelevant for a 'new' plan? ie...you're
having a new plan and everything is starting again and whether the
plan is 'sound' depends on you having a 5YS 'at the point of
adoption', measured against the requirement in the new plan and with a
buffer of...???
Has anyone actually had experience of this..or anyone got any thoughts?
Thanks
