Agenda item

To consider a report of the Local Plan Team Leader.

The committee received a report of the Strategic Planning Manager, which provided information on the rate of delivery of new homes against targets in adopted local plans.  This item was brought to committee following a review of the performance dashboard and in particular a performance indicator relating to ‘Overall – Number of homes built in Dorset Council area’.  The committee wished to understand the reasons for targets not being met and explore if there were actions that the council could take to encourage more homes to be built.

The committee considered the issues arising from the report and during discussion, the following areas were covered:

·            Opportunities to increase engagement with developers

·            Whether there were opportunities for the council to build houses including social and key worker homes, including the potential to create an ‘arm’s length’ company, the potential resource issues around this, talking to developers and the public to build houses that were needed for Dorset and looking at information from other councils where this had been done

·            Opportunities for the council to enable others to build houses and particular reference to community land trusts and the role of registered providers

·            The need to consider capacity and costs within the construction industry and commercial aspects

·            Issues around the delay of development on sites with planning permission

·            Links to the government standard methodology and the potential changes which may be brought about through the awaited Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

·            The impact of the constraints of designations in Dorset and how the council compared with other councils

·            Mechanisms to make Dorset an attractive place to build and the need to ensure good quality homes

·            Viability issues and the link to delivering social and affordable housing

·            Constraints on house building from people not wanting development in their area and the need for engagement with town and parish councils and the public around the need to build housing and engagement in the planning process

·            Ensuring policies enabled the right development

·            The value of neighbourhood plans and the need for guidance on how to keep them up to date.

The Chairman provided a summary of the key points raised and further action to be taken:

·            Further work to be undertaken to explore opportunities for the council in the delivery of housing (particular reference to social and affordable housing and housing for key workers) to include the possibility of using the council’s land supply working with developers or the development of an arms’ length company

·            Support for the continued dialogue between the Portfolio Holder for Planning and Government, on issues in this area

·            Continued engagement (communications/roadshows) with town and parish councils to bring forward local development to enable housing delivery

·            The need to gain an understanding of the number of social and affordable housing that has not been delivered since 2016 and how this has impacted on housing numbers provided.

It was agreed that Councillors Shortell, Tooke and Bartlett would meet to scope a potential review to cover the issues raised.

The Executive Director of Place noted a number of national reports that could be referred to as part of the scoping exercise in addition to information from other councils.