Agenda item

To consider the attached report.

The Joint Assembly:

a)    NOTED progress towards delivery as set out in paragraph 18 of the report.

b)    RECOMMENDED that the Executive Board endorses the approach to monitoring as outlined in paragraphs 11 to 23 of the report.

c)    RECOMMENDED that the Executive Board:

1.    Treats as the same figure of 33,500, the housing supply (both through actual housing completions and through predicted completions from permissions, allocations and windfalls) required in the submitted Local Plans for Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, and the commitment in the City Deal agreement;

2.    Defines the City Deal agreement on affordable housing as follows:

"All affordable homes (as defined by the National Planning Policy Framework) constructed on rural exception sites, and on sites not allocated for development in the local plans and outside of a defined settlement boundary.”

3.    Requests that due consideration be given to the housing needs of local people;

4.    Requires Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council to identify and record eligible planning permissions and completions, and the forecast and actual years in which they are built, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report (Figure 2), detailing also the cumulative total so that the delivery of the 1,000 additional homes can be identified.

The Joint Assembly considered a report on the City Deal’s commitment to the delivery of 1,000 new homes on rural exception sites. In particular, Members noted the approach to monitoring set out in paragraphs 11 to 23 inclusive, and the progress towards delivery set out in paragraph 18 of the report.

The Joint Assembly received and noted a letter from Councillor Bridget Smith, who was unable to attend the meeting.

South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Planning Policy Manager summarised the report, and referred Assembly members to the graph attached thereto. She explained that the red line indicated the level of housing provision needed in order to meet delivery targets contained within the South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council Local Plans. Where the yearly bars extended above the red line, this indicated projected delivery of the 1,000 extra homes.

Councillor Maurice Leeke pointed to the different emphases that could be placed on the City Deal’s commitment. He said that, in any event, it was important to focus on the words ‘affordable’ and ‘additional’. The homes should be built on rural exception sites so that the ‘local connection’ requirement could be applied. Councillor Leeke said that the proposed definition of affordable housing, set out in paragraph 17 of the report, should be clear on that point. Councillor Roger Hickford, Chairman of the Joint Assembly, expressed concern that strict adherence to the need for a local connection could lead to homes remaining vacant where no such local need existed, and until the ‘cascading out’ measures were implemented.

Alex Colyer, Executive Director at South Cambridgeshire District Council explained how the District Council prioritised entitlement to affordable housing.

Councillor Leeke suggested that the definition of affordable housing should draw a distinction between  the commitment to provide 1,000 new homes, and the affordable homes delivered by virtue of developments permitted as a result of the inability to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. Councillor Kevin Price argued that the proposed definition of affordable housing, as set out in paragraph 17 of the report, was sufficient. There was further discussion about the different ways in which affordable housing could be delivered and unease at the apparent lack of consistency in applying ‘local connection’ criteria.

Sir Michael Marshall suggested that local support and local needs should be defining factors.

Councillor Price referred to the impact that viability could have on the target figure of 40% affordable housing on permitted housing developments. Caroline Hunt confirmed that the policy was one of 40% affordable housing, subject to viability.

Councillor Leeke said that exception sites resulted from the goodwill of landowners providing land that might otherwise one day have been included within development frameworks. Such landowners were thus foregoing the opportunity of benefiting from a substantial increase in land values.  He said that one of the ‘selling points’ for landowners releasing land outside development frameworks was the attraction of the ‘local connection’ element. He said that this, in turn, could release affordable housing elsewhere, as people moved back to the villages of their birth.

It was proposed that the following sentence to be added to the definition of affordable housing contained in paragraph 17:

“…with due consideration given to the housing needs of local people.”

Councillor Leeke agreed with this as a way of addressing his concerns. Mr Colyer requested that the concept of ‘aspiration’ be included so as to add clarity and limit expectation.

The Joint Assembly therefore:

(a)        NOTED progress towards delivery as set out in paragraph 18 of the report.

(b)        RECOMMENDED that the Executive Board:

1.    Treats as the same figure of 33,500, the housing supply (both through actual housing completions and through predicted completions from permissions, allocations and windfalls) required in the submitted Local Plans for Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, and the commitment in the City Deal agreement;

2.    Defines the City Deal agreement on affordable housing as follows:

"All affordable homes (as defined by the National Planning Policy Framework) constructed on rural exception sites, and on sites not allocated for development in the local plans and outside of a defined settlement boundary.”

3.    Requests that due consideration be given to the housing needs of local people;

4.    Requires Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council to identify and record eligible planning permissions and completions, and the forecast and actual years in which they are built, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report (Figure 2), detailing also the cumulative total so that the delivery of the 1,000 additional homes can be identified.