St Albans City and District Council’s draft spatial strategy for locating future development in the District, which includes housing targets, is to be considered in full by the Planning Policy Advisory Panel (PPAP) at a meeting on 25 November.
This follows the postponement of an earlier meeting of PPAP on 10 November, when uncertainty arose about the position on housing targets after the High Court ruled that a decision by the Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, to scrap regional housing targets was unlawful.
The previous government’s Regional Spatial Strategy had set a target of 360 new homes a year to be built in St Albans City and District. However, the Council has been considering setting its own housing targets and reducing this to 250 homes a year.
The Coalition Government has since made it clear that it will be including a clause in the forthcoming Localism Bill that will sweep away the previous government’s regional planning strategies including housing targets, clearing the way for the Council to set its own housing targets.
PPAP will now proceed to consider the strategy for locating future development in the District at the meeting on 25 November.
The strategy is a key part of the District’s planning framework and will form part of the Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework, which for St Albans City and District is now known as the District Vision. The strategy sets out where large scale future development proposals will be located in St Albans City and District from 2011-2028, including retail, leisure, community facilities, industrial/business development, housing and supporting infrastructure and explains how it will all relate and work together to ensure the District continues in the future to be a great place to live and work.
New development can bring substantial benefits for the community such as securing high quality local jobs, providing new schools, transport improvements and other facilities. The strategy will be used to manage this process allowing the District to grow in a controlled and sustainable way so that it best meets the needs of residents now and in the future and allows certainty to developers and the community about where new development will be located.
Housing development, which is only one element of the strategy, is being guided by the overriding principle of protecting and proactively managing the Green Belt and is led by the need to provide affordable homes for local people.
The Council is mindful of the need for the provision of social housing and has made it a priority to deliver 100 affordable homes a year.
Affordable homes are mainly provided as a percentage of new, private residential development. To help achieve its priority of delivering 100 affordable homes per year in a sustainable way, the council is increasing this percentage from 35% to 40%. This will mean that 250 new homes per year will need to be built in order to provide 100 affordable homes in the District.
The Council is also looking at opportunities for the development of council-owned land, such as garage sites to help deliver its priority of delivering 100 affordable homes per year.
Cllr Chris Brazier, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Conservation, and Chair of the Planning Policy Advisory Panel, said: “With a new 40% affordable housing target, a threshold of one house (gross) requiring a contribution to affordable housing and a new focus on the delivery of affordable housing on council-owned land, it is realistically achievable to deliver the Council’s affordable homes target of 100 homes per year with the 250 overall homes target.”
PPAP will also be considering strategic housing locations listed in the draft strategy.
Cllr Brazier added: “Apart from protecting the Green Belt, the main driver for the selection of strategic housing locations is the provision of infrastructure and community benefits, most particularly educational benefits for schools and colleges. Providing education facilities for young people and training opportunities for the whole community will help ensure development is truly sustainable.”
Making decisions about where to place development is not easy and the Council will need to consider the many different needs and views that the varied communities of the District have and as part of this it will be consulting residents. Before this happens, the Planning Policy Advisory Panel will consider the draft strategy on 25 November and make recommendations on its contents and the public consultation to Cabinet. These are then expected to be considered by Cabinet on 7 December ahead of the draft strategy for locating future development in the District being put out to consultation.
The consultation on the strategy is scheduled to run until early February 2011 with the results due to be reported to Cabinet in March 2011. These will then be used to help draft the full Core Strategy for the Local Development Framework. The Council will be seeking to adopt the Core Strategy in 2012.
Cllr Brazier concluded: “Protecting the Green Belt is the overriding principle behind the District Vision, which sets out the planning framework for St Albans City and District. Reaching agreement on the strategy and what is the right amount of new development, is a difficult but critical decision, but one that needs to be made so that change is positively managed and delivers benefits to our residents to improve their quality of life.”