Agenda item

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services, which sought adoption of the proposed Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment Methodology.

Coventry and Warwickshire Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) have a long history of constructively working together to address a range of strategic planning matters.  This relationship enabled the LPAs to achieve sound Local Plans.  Shared evidence and a collaborative approach was a vital element of being able to fulfil the statutory Duty to Co-operate and needed to be demonstrated to Planning Inspectors when Local Plans were examined.

The evidence base which informed the development of a Local Plan needs to be regularly reviewed and updated. Many of the Local Plans in the Coventry and Warwickshire area are currently being reviewed and updated, all running at different timescales.  In delivering sufficient housing and employment land to meet identified requirements it was important that each Local Authority keep an up-to-date database of sites, which needs to be assessed to see if they were suitable, available and could realistically be delivered to meet the needs of the area.  This would be especially important in order to be able to demonstrate a five-year supply of housing sites (one of the government’s key indicators for measuring success of a Local Authority’s planning policies in delivering its stated ambitions for housing growth) and in encouraging brownfield opportunities to come forward and reduce pressure upon land which had not previously been developed.  It was also important in understanding which sites would be promoted for potential economic use, so that a balanced and sustainable local economy could be achieved across the area.

The database of sites was known as the Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (HELAA).  In order to keep this essential evidence up to date, each Local Authority would run its own ‘call for sites’ process, which in effect would be an invitation for land owners, developers and their agents to express their interest in having their site considered for a range of uses such as housing, employment or even a range of other uses they wish to be considered through the local plan process.  Inclusion in the HELAA document did not mean they would be developed, that would be for the Local Authority to determine through their assessment process.  However, it was important that Local Authorities worked together to make sure that they operated consistently. This would be especially important when addressing areas where there are strong strategic relationships which stretch across different administrative boundaries such those relating to housing and the economy.

It was therefore essential that when Local Authorities looked at the detail of how they plan for growth, they did it in line with a common methodology to ensure consistency of approach and understanding. The methodology, attached at Appendix 1 to the report, had been prepared by Coventry and Warwickshire Local Planning Authorities to ensure that sites would be assessed within a common framework which accorded with the most up to date National Planning Policy and guidance. It updated the previous agreed version which was now out of date.

This methodology would be used when assessing proposed employment or housing sites in terms of whether or not they would be suitable for development, which was an essential part of the Local Plan process.  The methodology would also be used by the other Warwickshire District and Borough authorities who form part of the Housing Market Area (HMA) and who would be working together under the statutory Duty to Co-operate. The adoption of the methodology would enable the Council to proceed with a Call for Brownfield sites in order to update the evidence base to support a Local Plan review.

Consultation took place between 10th November and 22nd December 2021, running concurrently between the six Local Authorities. Representations were jointly considered, as set out in Appendix 2 of the report, and the methodology amended accordingly.  The final version was agreed at the CSWAPO (Duty to Co-operate) meeting on 9th February 2022, with each Local Authority to then take the final document through their own Councils for approval.

RESOLVED that, the Cabinet:

1.  Adopt the Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment Methodology contained in Appendix 1 of the report submitted.

2.  Authorise the launch of a Call for Brownfield Sites to run for a period of ten weeks in Spring 2022.