Issue - meetings

The Principal Planning Officer (Strategic Planning) presented this report to the Committee and reminded Members that further updates to the consultation response had been circulated to the Committee prior to the meeting.

It was noted that:

·  The ‘Planning for the right homes in the right places’ Government consultation contained a number of proposals first signalled in the Housing White Paper in February 2017; which were:

o  A proposed standardised methodology for calculating the housing need figure for local plans;

o  Improvements to the way local authorities worked together to plan for housing and other needs using Statements of Common Ground;

o  Helping local authorities plan for specific housing needs and support neighbourhood planning;

o  Simplifying the use of viability assessments in planning; and

o  Potential increases to planning application fees.

·  An informal Members briefing was held on 10 October 2017, which provided early insight and consideration of the Government’s proposals.

The Committee requested that the following points be added into the consultation response:

·  The proposed new methodology would result in limited new housebuilding in the northern parts of the country compared with the south. This could undermine efforts to regenerate parts of the north, including through the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ initiative, and could increase the north-south divide.

·  Deliverability of the increased housing numbers will be limited by capacity issues and skills shortages within the construction sector.

·  There should be penalties on landowners/developers who ‘land bank’ sites, failing to implement planning permissions promptly. This may need to include fiscal measures.

·  In the case of a Local Plan Review, the Government should confirm that the new housing needs figure should not apply until the review had been adopted.

·  The Council should be able to recoup in planning application fees the actual amount its costs to consider and determine planning applications.

RESOLVED:

That the response included in Appendix 1 be agreed as Maidstone Borough Council’s submission to the Government consultation ‘Planning for the right homes in the right places’.

Voting: Unanimous