Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Hello Darren, Here are some thoughts on the issue that you have raised.... the issue is important, given that seemingly the approach taken for assessing the market viability of sites with planning permission for SHLAAs ought to be consistent with the approach for demonstrating a 5 year supply of deliverable sites for the purpose of National Indicator NI 159. It would appear there are implications here which are likely to be sensitive - risk to the award of HPDG and also to a Local Authority's position in defending its case at planning appeal (where permission has been refused on housing land supply grounds). It is not inconceivable that the CLG could impose a claw back clause for withholding HPDG award where 5 year land supply calculations are not found to be robust (following subsequent audit). Additionally the building industry could take the view that unless the market viability of sites with unimplemented planning permission has been demonstrated then these should not count towards the 5 year supply. However, this second point raises the question whether there is any greater likelihood of new sites being implemented should planning permission be granted, and the issue of requirements placed through Section 106 agreements. Therefore, it would appear that LPAs may be in a difficult position in achieving the "holy grail" of being able to demonstrate a 5 year housing land supply which is beyond dispute - this is made all the more difficult because of the current housing market conditions. A surf on Google has so far provided little evidence of how other LPAs are tackling this. Some LPAs seem to apply an evidenced lapse rate to discount sites. However, since this is based on past trends it may not be considered the "look forward" that NI 159 requires. Another route might be to exclude those sites with unimplemented planning permission where there is no known financial commitment by a developer to progress the development. However, would this approach also apply to SHLAA sites without planning permission? - in which case then very few sites identified in a SHLAA (including the PDL sites for the 5 year supply calculation) might show a potential yield in the next 5 years unless financial commitment can be demonstrated. With a 64% reduction in mortgage application approvals in the last 12 months and a difficulty in being able to purchase homes there would appear to be little incentive to build in the short term. Hence housing trajectories in SHLAAs / AMR may need to reflect this - with a reduced delivery in the next several years. Where SHLAAs / AMRs do not show a reduced delivery these may be open to challenge. What other sources of information can help a LPA compile its list of deliverable sites? Where land owners and developers have been approached directly and have indicated an intent to develop a site this could help. However, the advice has to be accepted at face value and is only valid at the time it is provided. Another source is through including sites which are known to have commenced after 31st March (SHLAA base date), where SHLAAs may not be published until later in the year. I trust these thoughts may be helpful - if only to stimulate some discussion on this forum.

The Draft Teignbridge Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment applies a 2008 market conditions model to the 5 year supply of deliverable sites. This model has been agreed with key stakeholders on the SHLAA Panel. The model is included in the main SHLAA Report - see Appendix 4, which can be viewed on the Council's website: http://intranet/media/pdf/d/5/Item_13_-_Draft_SHLAA_Main_Report.pdf Other pdfs that form part of the draft SHLAA can be found on this webpage (see item 13 on the Executive meeting agenda) - these include spreadsheets showing annual build out for each identified site: http://intranet/index.cfm?articleid=9425 Given the lack of posts in relation to this thread, this might spark some interest?

Tristian, Tried your links - but they appear to be pointing to your Intranet and not Internet - so we cannot access them. Are they available publically?

The link is below http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/media/pdf/9/p/Published_Consultation_Draft_Proposed_Methodology_for_SHLAA_EHMA_(December_2007).pdf

At Wokingham Borough the authority contacted all the organisations with extant planning permission to establish if the Council's and their own views on build rates were consistent. The view was generally that any site where construction was not underway at April 2008 was extremely unlikely to see any building work until spring 2010. Only sites under construction would be completed in the intervening two years. This information was factored into the Council's draft SHLAA (available at www.wokingham.gov.uk/shlaa) for April 2008 published in August to accompany submission of the authority's Core Strategy (see www.wokingham.gov.uk/ldf/corestrategy). The full housing monitoring information for the borough is available at: http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/environment/planning/news-and-information/housingmonitoring/full-march-2008-details.

I have retried the link and it works for me, so I apologise if this does not work externally. However, here is an alternative link: http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/media/pdf/d/5/Item_13_-_Draft_SHLAA_Main_Report.pdf You can also access the SHLAA by navigating through the Councils' website with the following path (it is Agenda item 13): YOU ARE IN: Teignbridge District Council / Council and Democracy / Committee meetings, reports and minutes / Agendas & Reports / 2008 - 2009 / Executive 08-09 / 6 October 2008 I would also point out that a final Methodology for preparing SHLAAs in the Exeter sub-region is expected to be published by the partner Local Authorities in the near future. This is currently subject to key stakeholder consideration.

Just a quick comment on the account to be taken of market conditions at the moment. I and and collegaues from other Core Cities had a meeting with Keith Holland in Bristol on 17th September and he advised that as we could not do anything about the market we should set it aside. I hope this helps to give some comfort.

Did Keith Holland really say that local authorities should 'set aside' consideration of the market when preparing SHLAAs? I can understand a need to take the long view beyond the current market difficulties when setting policy, but if house builders are only bringing schemes forward at a fraction of the level last year, and this is going to last for at least another year or so, then it is very difficult to understand how you can set aside the market when looking at 5 year land supply. Guidance on SHLAAs is very clear that it should be a collaborative process with the house building industry and others and it follows that you must take market considerations into account. If you don't then you end up with a SHLAA and a 5 year land supply that is neither deliverable or robust. I would suggest that the approach adopted in Teignbridge and Wokingham, and based on discussions with house builders/developers is more realistic and robust.