Hi Ive recently picked up the responsibility for the ELR and monitoring within my authority. Having monitored housing development for many years, the whole process around employment monitoring seems to be a very grey area! In Redditch, we are in a position where our administrative boundaries are tight and there is a strong liklihood that we will need to rely on neighbouring authorities to meet our growth needs. Therefore, it seems that every effort should be made to meet as much of our need within the Borough as we can. At the moment, we make no allowance for windfall contributions arising from extensions to existing units. Given the thrust of economic propserity in the NPPF, Im wondering if extensions should contribute towards the employment provision if there is an indication of additional job creation in the planning application. Surely this is a fundamental objective behind the NPPFs economic driver?? Ive read through the ELR Guidance Note (Dec 2004), but couldnt find any guidance as to what constitutes a potential committment of this type, or guidance as to assessment criteria i.e. extensions over a certain size/ no. of additional employees etc. I wondered if anyone could give me a starter for ten as to inclusion criteria that have been used by other local authorities.
