Issue - meetings

Mr Stuart Watson, Planning Officer (Strategic Planning), presented an update on self-build and custom housebuilding.

Mr Watson informed the Committee that:

·  The Council was required to make a provision for those who wished to build their own homes through the Local Plan.

·  Legislation, however, did not distinguish between self-build projects and custom housebuilding.

·  The Council had a responsibility to maintain a self-build and custom housebuilding register to understand demand in its local area.

·  This register was used to calculate demand and ensure there was adequate supply of serviced plots to meet this demand.

·  According to the borough’s register, which was hosted externally from the Council’s website, of the 127 individuals on the register between October 2016-October 2017 114 had showed an interest in more than one authority.

·  The Council did not charge a fee to be on the register. However in order to recover costs when complying with the Council’s duty to grant planning permission to self-build properties the Council was able to charge a fee for entry onto the register as well as for ongoing membership.

The Committee considered the update and raised concerns that the figure for need may not be a truly accurate figure due to the applicants showing interest in more than one area, and that it was free for applicants to join the register. The Committee suggested that if there was a fee to join the register it would deter speculative registrations.

In response to a question from the Committee, Mr Watson confirmed that as there was no distinction between self and custom build within the relevant planning legislation housebuilders were able to seek permission for large, serviced, custom build plots and then sell the plots on to those wishing to custom build. The Committee noted that this could lead to a large estate with a variety of different types, styles and shapes of dwellings and this may be visually unappealing, and requested that design guidelines for larger custom build sites be included in the review of the Local Plan.

Members requested that the style of the report be amended for the next update to make it more visually appealing.

RESOLVED:

1.  That the statutory requirement for the Council to keep a self-build and custom housebuilding register and the duties required for increasing the availability of land for self-build and custom housebuilding be noted.

2.  That an update be brought back to this Committee in 12 months time, including a review of fees and charges for maintaining the register.

Voting: Unanimous