Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder for Housing, Councillor Upton presented the report of the Executive Manager – Communities outlining the Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2: Land and Planning Policies, which incorporated the Inspector’s recommended modifications.

Councillor Upton advised that the adoption of the Plan was extremely important given the increasing demand for housing, as development had failed to keep pace with a growing population and previous years of under supply of housing, with the problem being acknowledged by all main political parties. Rushcliffe was a popular place to live with demand for housing outstripping supply and the Council had to respond to Government pressure to deliver more housing. Last year 760 new homes were delivered in the Borough, more than any other district or borough in Nottinghamshire. The Council’s vision was to ensure that all Rushcliffe’s residents had a choice of affordable, good quality, energy efficient housing in sustainable locations. Rushcliffe continued to work with neighbouring councils and was disappointed when the Government allocated the Borough a minimum of 13,150 homes to be built by 2028, rather than the Council’s preferred target of 9,000. The figure was not negotiable and the Council needed an adopted Local Development Plan to ensure that the Borough had quality housing and jobs in the correct locations. The Council’s homes allocation had been adopted into the Core Strategy. Development of some of the large strategic sites had been slower than anticipated and it was unlikely that as a whole they would deliver the required number of houses by 2028. The Local Plan Part 2 was proposing an additional 25 small to medium housing sites that should be quicker to deliver, to make up the shortfall with the strategic sites. Allocating sites required careful consideration, particularly when Greenfield and Greenbelt sites were involved, with over 40% of Rushcliffe made up of Greenbelt and only a small number of Brownfield sites. With the Council’s Core Strategy, the Inspector had stated that there was convincing evidence that the housing allocation could not be delivered without the removal of land from the Greenbelt and had found that there were exceptional circumstances to alter Greenbelt boundaries. That had established the context of the release of Greenbelt for development in Part 2. Not everyone agreed with the allocation, as was the case with any planning development; however, if the Council failed to deliver its housing allocation, the Government had advised that it could intervene to allocate the sites. The Council therefore needed to be pragmatic and decide where the housing should be built. The Inspector had concluded that the Local Plan Part 2 was legally compliant, sound and could be adopted providing that the main modifications were incorporated in full. The Council could not legally make any further modifications nor seek to delete any of the Inspector’s recommended main modifications and then adopt the Plan. The Inspector’s report had been considered by the Local Development Framework (LDF) Group and it had recommended the Plan’s adoption. If the Plan was not adopted it would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36