Solihull Consult on Local Plan Review
Solihull MBC’s Cabinet approved their Supplementary Draft Solihull Local Plan Review (SLPR) document for public consultation at their meeting on 17th January 2019 and the document has been published for consultation from 29th January to 15th March 2019.
The current consultation document does not contain any revised policies, but rather concentrates on identifying sufficient land to meet an updated housing land requirement for 15,039 new dwellings in the Borough between 2018 and 2035, i.e. 885 dwellings per annum. The overall figure includes 2,000 dwellings to meet some of the shortfall in housing land that is occurring in the wider Housing Market Area. The housing requirement figures represent a doubling of the average annual housing delivery rate which has taken place in the Borough over the last 10 years and compares to the 2016 Draft SLPR consultation annual figure of 791.
The document lists the quantum of residential dwellings likely to be generated from different sources, including preferred proposed site allocations, identified as ‘green’ sites, which are estimated to deliver 6,310 dwellings.
The consultation document also includes a list of ‘amber’ sites which are not currently proposed for development but may be brought forward for allocation in the ‘final’ submission version of the SLPR, depending upon the response received to this consultation process and, we assume, depending upon the final number of dwellings the local authority are required to accommodate, in response to the shortfall in housing land in other local authority areas within the same Housing Market Area. Councils have a ‘Duty to Cooperate’ to accommodate housing in their area that cannot be provided in a neighbouring authority’s area.
In addition to seeking views on the housing numbers and proposed development sites, the consultation also seeks views on a limited number of other issues, such as: whether larger settlements currently washed over by Green Belt should be removed from the Green Belt to enable more development; and whether the affordable housing requirement should be measured as a percentage of additional floorspace or habitable rooms, rather than total number of units, to encourage the development of a larger number of smaller market houses.
Whilst the Council are still accepting details of any sites submitted for consideration as potential development sites, it is important these are put forward as soon as possible, as the later such sites are sent into the Council before the next version of the plan is prepared, the less chance they will have of being fully assessed and included. Therefore, it is important that if you are aware of any land which will potentially be available for development up to 2035, details are submitted to Solihull MBC as soon as possible for assessment.
Tyler Parkes would of course be happy to assist in making any submissions in response to the Council’s current Supplementary Draft Solihull Local Plan Review and their on-going call for sites.