Agenda item

Report E/22/23 asks the Executive to approve the Five-Year Housing Land Supply report for the period 2022 to 2027.

Members are asked to note that Appendix B (5 Year Housing Land Supply Database) and Appendix E (2022 SHLAA Database) to the report are very detailed PDFs and, as such, will require significant adjustment on screen to read.

Councillor R Musgrave left the meeting at this point.

The Leader of the Council introduced the report which asked the Executive to approve the Five-Year Housing Land Supply 2022 – 2027 and explained that each local authority was required by central government to provide a 5-year supply of deliverable housing land. Being able to demonstrate a 5-year housing supply meant that planning applications for housing could be determined by the Council, with all the policies in the District’s Local Development Plan. The 2022-2027 Five-Year Housing Land Supply report found that the district had a deliverable housing supply of 6.1 years.

Members noted that being able to demonstrate a deliverable five-year supply of housing means that when determining planning applications for housing, policies in the development plan were considered up to date. Failure to demonstrate a 5-year supply means that relevant policies were out of date and applications for housing development should be granted unless:

·      the application of policies in the NPPF that protected areas or assets of particular importance provided a clear reason for refusing the development proposed; or

·      any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the NPPF as a whole.

The assessment of the Council’s Five-Year Housing Supply was carried out by the Planning Policy Team on an annual basis, with the start of each financial year being used as the base date. This report uses the base date of 1 April 2022.

Members were unsure as to the arrangements for housing supply assessment following local government reorganisation (LGR) in April 2023, as such work was usually done on a local basis.

Officers were content with the current 6.1-year supply of housing as had been identified and were looking closely at the interplay between the Development Plan and incoming planning applications; however, there were some sites that required further legal consideration.  

The Leader of the Opposition felt that the Council’s current approach to housing land supply was more rigorous that it had been in the past, but that such supplies were used up quickly, and that it could be important for there to be appropriate interim arrangements or policies in place to cover such a gap, so that local areas within the Selby District continued to be represented. Officers explained that such provisions would depend on LGR and the Council’s Local Plan, alongside careful monitoring of the supply position.

Officers were asked to supply further information to Members on housing land supply arrangements at other North Yorkshire local authorities. Some work had already been undertaken as part of a Member Task Group for LGR; information relating to this would be available quite soon.

The Leader of the Council commended the report.

RESOLVED:

                        The Executive

1.     approved the Five-Year Housing Land Supply 2022 – 2027; and

2.     asked Officers to provide further information to Members on housing land supply arrangements at other North Yorkshire local authorities.

REASON FOR DECISION:

To approve the Five-Year Housing Land Supply Report and the supply figure within it, so that the report could be used as a material consideration in the determination of planning applications for housing.