Agenda

Link to further information in the Council’s Constitution

To receive as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting of the Council held on Thursday, 17 July 2025.

To answer questions submitted by Citizens on the Council or its services.

The report of the Director – Development and Economic Growth is attached.

The report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services is attached.

To receive Notices of Motion

a)           Councillor Upton

In the last ten years, more new homes have been built in Rushcliffe than anywhere else in Nottinghamshire. This was achieved, in part, by the previous Government abolishing housing targets and giving more power back to local councils to determine where new housing should be built. The new Government has restored housing targets and is proposing planning reforms that will give more powers to house builders. We are concerned that Rushcliffe will be forced to take more housing than is planned for. With the current proposed Local Government Reform, we believe that the current housing target policy is no longer relevant. 

We propose that this Council writes to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and calls on the Government to: 

1. abolish mandatory housing targets for District and Borough Councils; 

2. safeguard Greenbelt and Greenfield land against future development, where an area has met its house building obligations in the last five years; and 

3. create a new approach of identifying brownfield land and city centre sites for housing development and produce targets for them regardless of the current Local Government boundaries. 

b)          Councillor Clarke MBE

It is perceived that Rushcliffe is experiencing an increase in the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), particularly small HMOs falling within Use Class C4 (occupation by between three and six unrelated people, sharing basic amenities, as more than one household). HMOs play an important role in housing provision across the Borough; however, this can lead to issues associated with parking pressure, noise, and have a detrimental impact on community cohesion and local amenity.

Under the current planning framework, the change of use from a dwelling house (Class C3) to a small HMO (Class C4) is classed as permitted development under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, such that planning permission is automatically granted without a planning application having to be made. Under Article 4 of that Order, local planning authorities have the ability to make Direction, after preparing an evidence base. This includes mapping current HMOs, identifying any recent increase in the creation rate of new HMOs, and assessing local impacts, including amenity, parking, waste, and housing balance, and where the operation of specific permitted development rights is resulting in harmful impacts, removing those rights in defined areas, so that an application for planning permission would then be required.

This Council therefore resolves to:

1.           Investigate and collate an evidence base to look at whether there is a case for introducing an Article 4 Direction across Rushcliffe, to enable this Council to assess proposals for HMOs on a case-by-case basis through the planning process. This will allow local residents and Councillors to be consulted and consider the impacts of such proposals.

2.           Bring a formal report to Cabinet by the end of February 2026, to enable it to consider the evidence (subject to it being available and the completion of public consultation) and, if justified, recommend that a  ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

To answer questions submitted by Councillors