Issue - meetings

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) has published a consultation titled ‘Changes to the current planning system: consultation on changes to planning policy and regulations’. The consultation was published on 6 August 2020 and comments are invited by the end of 1 October 2020.

The Committee received a report detailing the recently- published consultation titled ‘Changes to the current planning system: consultation on changes to planning policy and regulations’ from The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

The Committee had also received a draft response focusing on the proposed changes to the standard method calculation.

The following matters were considered:

·                     Addition of potential for negative equity within the response to question 3 of the consultation. The Committee requested that the potential for negative equity to occur for home owners in the Borough as a result of the Government’s requirement for additional housing be added to the response to Question 3 of the consultation.

·                     Housing multiplier. The Committee requested that the consultation response include reference to the fact that as the Borough already had low land availability and high land cost, the use of a multiplier for housing delivery above the identified housing need was nonsensical.

·                     Response to Question 1 of the consultation. The Committee requested that the word “Yes” at the beginning of the proposed response to Question 1 be clarified as relating to planning practice guidance and nothing else.

Following consideration it was resolved that the Committee:

(1)          Noted and approved the draft response to the proposed changes to the standard method for assessing local housing need.

(2)          Authorised the Head of Planning to prepare and respond to the other three proposals set out in the ‘Changes to the current planning system’ consultation after consultation with the Chair of Licensing and Planning Policy Committee.