Comment
Chichester leads the way in the proactive delivery of housing
Chichester District Council (CDC) will soon have less than 4 years supply of housing sites. In response, the CDC has prepared a draft Interim Policy Statement (IPS) to boost its housing delivery. CDC intends for this IPS to proactively deliver new housing whilst their Local Plan Review progresses towards adoption, effectively giving the green light to new residential schemes on the edges of existing settlements. Chichester’s timing is impeccable with the prospect of a short and medium-term downturn in housing supply due to COVID-19, and the subsequent economic recovery period.
The IPS is available here.
We wholeheartedly welcome this positive intent.
CDC adopted the Chichester Local Plan: Key Policies 2014-2029 in July 2015. More recently, the council has been reviewing and updating its plan, with the likely publication of a consultation document in spring 2021. Once adopted, the new plan will provide up-to-date planning policies to guide future development proposals within the parts of the district which are outside of the South Downs National Park.
At present, the council’s housing supply is assessed against the adopted Local Plan target of 435 dwellings per annum. The most recent housing supply position statement confirmed that, against that target, 5.5 years of supply could be demonstrated. However, from 15 July 2020, the council’s housing supply will be based on an assessment of ‘local housing need’ in line with the NPPF.
Using the standard methodology, the council has calculated that there will be an increase in housing numbers from 435 to 628 dwellings per annum. This will mean that the council will have less than 4 years supply of housing.
The draft IPS represents the latest iteration of a longstanding approach to achieving flexibility in the face of housing supply challenges within West Sussex. Back in 2009, neighbouring Horsham District introduced a policy known as ‘Facilitating Appropriate Development’ (FAD). This was a response both to Planning Inspectorate criticism that the Horsham Core Strategy was insufficiently flexible to ensure that housing needs would be met, but also a measure to address the macroeconomic slowdown and ‘credit crunch’ of 2008/9 which resulted in a marked downturn in house building. Those with long memories may recall the Government paper ‘Facing the Housing Challenge’ of July 2008, which encouraged innovation and flexibility such as the ‘FAD’ approach.
Chichester adopted a similar FAD document in 2011, in that case due to the delay in adopting its local plan. The FAD document has formed the basis for the draft IPS, albeit there has been significant updating and reconsideration of the original criteria, for example, to include a new criterion to support Chichester’s declaration of a ‘Climate Emergency’ in 2019.
The criteria within the draft IPS encourage new residential sites of an appropriate scale on the edge of existing settlements, for example, Chichester City and the Settlement Hubs, discouraging arbitrarily low density, isolated or piecemeal development. Sites will be expected to meet higher standards of construction and environmental quality and must be acceptable in all other respects, e.g. highways access, flood risk, contribution to affordable housing and open space requirements. There is also a requirement for proposals to demonstrate how they will achieve nitrate neutrality, where required, in accordance with Natural England guidance.
We welcome the introduction of the policy, both for its intent to maintain and increase housing supply, but also for its focus on delivering quality development. As with its predecessors, we hope it results in some fantastic new developments and we look forward to seeing other Local Authorities adopt similar policies.
Consultation on the draft Interim Statement commences on Friday 12 June and will run for four weeks until 10 July 2020.
Please contact Aaron Wright or Peter Home for further information.
12 June 2020