Issue - meetings

The government has recently published a White Paper on housing.  The government believes that the nation’s housing market is ‘broken’ and it believes that the measures set out in the White Paper can ‘fix-it’.  In the government’s view the problem is that not enough houses have been built.

This report provides a brief overview of the White Paper and encloses annexes that set out draft responses to the consultation questions and key facts about the specific measures being proposed to fix the nation’s housing market.

The Committee are asked to consider the proposals set out in the White Paper and the draft responses to the consultation questions and agree that subject to any changes these replies constitute the Council’s official response to the proposals.

The Committee considered the proposals set out in the Housing White Paper and approved the draft responses to the consultation questions, subject to amendments that were agreed at the meeting, and that the responses constitute the Council’s reply to the proposals.

The Committee were informed that following the publication of the recent Housing White Paper, the Government had issued a consultation consisting of 38 questions to assess the viability of their proposals.

Members appraised the draft responses and agreed to the following amendments/additions:

·                 Question 8:  Delete the final sentence of the answer, ‘This amendment is not considered necessary.’

·                 Question13:  Add a reference to high density developments, as follows: ‘;It should be noted that high density developments in their totality do not automatically lead to a more efficient use of land.  The infrastructure requirements to support a resulting concentration of new residents often lead to further land requirements, for example, to deliver school expansions and car parking.’

·                 Question 23: Add sentence to clarify the term ‘applicant’, as follows:  ‘It cannot be assumed that the applicant of the planning application will be the developer or indeed has any intention of developing the site themselves.  It is not uncommon for planning permission to be obtained prior to a site being sold as way of increasing profit.’

·                 Question 31:  Insert reference to concerns in changes to affordable housing between paragraphs one and two as follows: ‘Furthermore, the Borough Council is concerned that the proposed changes to the definitions of affordable housing will result in products not remaining affordable in perpetuity’.

·                 Question 32:  Add a sentence that emphasizes the conflict with the ministerial statement, as follows:  ‘The Borough Council would like to highlight the potential conflict with the current written Ministerial Statement in relation to affordable housing contributions and sites of 10 or fewer new homes.’

Accordingly, subject to the amendments agreed above, The Committee approved the draft responses to the consultation questions, and agreed that the responses would constitute the Council’s reply to the proposals.