Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services which indicated that Policy DS1 of the Local Plan commits the Council to review certain triggers before March 2021 which, if met, would lead to a review of the current Local Plan. The report reviewed these triggers and recommended that there is no requirement to commence a Plan Review in March 2021.

The report indicated that The Local Plan was adopted in December 2017 and included, within policy DS1, the following provision;

“3. The Council will undertake a comprehensive review of national policy, the regional context, updates to the evidence base and monitoring data before 31st March 2021 to assess whether a full or partial review of the Plan is required. In the event that a review is required, work on that review will commence immediately.”

The full text of the policy and its explanatory notes was included in Appendix 1 to the report.

With the conclusion of the most recent housing and employment monitoring, it is considered an appropriate juncture to review the triggers set out in DS1 to determine whether a review of the Plan is appropriate.

The report indicated that with regard to National Policy, since the adoption of the Local Plan in 2017 the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has undergone revision, the most recent version of which is dated February 2019. By itself this is insufficient to trigger a review, and analysis was undertaken regarding the extent of the changes to the NPPF and the subsequent impact on the adopted Plan. Whilst the NPPF revisions provide updated provisions and guidance, there are no material changes that result in the current Plan being rendered unsound; it is therefore not considered appropriate to commence a review on this basis.

Since Plan adoption the government has introduced a Standard Methodology which Councils are obliged to use when calculating housing requirements, replacing the method that was used in the Local Plan. This Methodology takes the official government population projections produced by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and applies a multiplier to them based on average affordability in the City. Any plan review would need to use this Methodology as a basis for calculating housing need, and then add any additional modifiers driven through previous under-delivery, supporting economic growth or other drivers for additional growth. As the Methodology uses the same ONS population projection principles as the Local Plan there are no significant changes to the growth pattern of the city and sub-region as a result.

The most recent ONS population projections (currently the 2018 projections, released in Summer 2020) would need to be input into the Standard Methodology when conducting a review. These projections show a slight increase in growth over the plan period when compared to the 2012 projections used at plan-making stage. This additional growth is not considered significant enough to trigger a review but will need to be accommodated in any future review, as has been the case in neighbouring authorities where  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49