Agenda item

Cllr Martin Tett welcomed Oliver Letwin MP to present his review of the build out of large sites with planning permission behalf of Her Majesty’s Government.

Oliver Letwin MP introduced the work that was being carried out in planning permission on larger sites. Oliver Letwin MP highlighted the scale of the review, what the scope of the review was and what was not being considered. An analytical report will be published in June 2018 on the current problems of large site planning permission.

Oliver Letwin MP considered why certain housing developments were being created and the labour constraints around housing developments, concluding that current trade levels are healthy and not a concern. Planning permission takes as long as it currently does, due to the rate it takes to sell the houses in the new housing developments.

Oliver Letwin MP highlighted that contractors will have a greater knowledge of planned developments than the local council due to contractors having greater staff dedicated to the developments as opposed to council staff who are doing several roles. In Northern European countries, this is the opposite as the government will take on developments themselves.

Oliver Letwin MP reported findings on the market, on what buyers are looking for, the level of demand for the market and how diversity in developments can speed up selling of developments. Oliver Letwin MP summarised that the planning system is still largely working for new housing sites but more can be done to speed up permissions.

Members asked the following questions and made the following comments

The rate of delivery of the larger sites sees councils being penalised due to the actions of contractors taking too long.

Will more powers devolved to local government allow greater control over the process?

Hitting projected numbers of new houses means councils will allow larger sites, which can cause delays.

Social housing is being affected by a range of elements, what are developers doing to ensure more are being built?

Quality of housing needs to be improved as we look to build houses quicker.

The business model of developers does not align with council local plans and resident needs, there feels like there is no local input into plans.

International partners can have a negitive affect over absorption levels.

Oliver Letwin MP responded with

Knowledge of when a build out happens should be taken into account with planning permission, it should be included in the local council local plans.

Small sites can lead to quicker build outs, as opposed to larger sites which will have more barriers to delivery.

After the analytical report in June 2018 is published, solutions will be considered, including powers for local government.

Developers are concerned about maximising profits and more sites than they can handle would not engage them to build any faster.

There should be an increase in the amount of affordable housing being built on larger sites. Houses are sold at the rate the market has demand for them and social housing is built on the back of these houses being sold.

Changing the business model of site developments will not help as much as local government having more control over sites that are being developed

Housing sites need to consider residents rather than just numbers of units

Diversity of housing sites can see greater interest from different markets.