Decision details

Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five-Year Housing Land Supply Calculations

Decision Maker: Lead Cabinet member for Planning

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: Yes

Purpose:

Purpose

 

1.    The purpose of this report is:

a.    To agree the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply document (Appendix 1 of this decision) to be published on the Councils’ websites. The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory and five year housing land supply calculations have been prepared jointly with Cambridge City Council, consistent with the adopted Local Plans.

b.    To delegate any further minor editing changes to the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply document to the Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development where they are technical matters.

 

2.    In January 2019, Cabinet agreed that the Greater Cambridge housing trajectory and five year supply calculations would be agreed by the Cabinet Member for Planning via a decision outside of a meeting (together with the Executive Member for Planning Policy at Cambridge City Council).

 

Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply

 

3.    The government through national planning policy requires that all local planning authorities identify sufficient deliverable sites to deliver a minimum of five years worth of housing against their housing requirement, as set out in their Local Plans. The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory is used by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council to calculate their five-year housing land supply and also to demonstrate that anticipated housing delivery will meet or exceed their housing requirement.

 

4.    The approach to considering the five-year housing land supply for Greater Cambridge is set out in Policy 3 of the Cambridge Local Plan 2018 and Policy S/12 of the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018. The Inspectors that examined both Local Plans confirmed that the five-year supply should be calculated on the basis of a joint housing trajectory for Greater Cambridge reflecting the joint development strategy across the two Local Plans, using a 20% buffer and the Liverpool methodology.

 

5.    The Councils have prepared the Greater Cambridge housing trajectory and five-year supply calculations based on national planning policy and guidance for housing trajectories and five-year supply calculations.

 

6.    The Councils have also considered the recent conclusions of two appeal Inspectors that considered planning applications at Cambridge Road in Melbourn and New Road in Over. Although the Inspectors dismissed the appeals they were not persuaded by the Councils’ evidence for anticipated housing supply at a number of individual sites as included in the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory (November 2019). The Councils have taken into consideration the Inspectors’ conclusions as part of preparing their new housing trajectory and five year supply calculations.

 

7.    The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory and five-year housing land supply calculations show that jointly for Greater Cambridge, the Councils can demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, using the Liverpool methodology and 20% buffer. The Councils jointly have 5.4 years of housing land supply for the 2020-2025 five-year period. The Councils have taken a robust and conservative approach to assessing the deliverability and / or developability of each of the sites in the Greater Cambridge housing trajectory.

 

8.    National planning policy and guidance sets out the circumstances where planning policies should be considered out of date when making decisions on planning applications, and this includes where the Council cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. On the basis of the five year supply calculations in the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply document (which is Appendix 1 of this decision), this does not apply to Cambridge or South Cambridgeshire, as the Councils can demonstrate a five year supply, and decisions should therefore be made in accordance with the up to date development plans adopted in 2018.

 

9.    At the end of the officer process of preparing this update to the Councils’ Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and their five year housing land supply calculations for 2020?2025, the coronavirus started to have an impact on the Councils’ business operations, including the convening of planning committees. The new housing trajectory includes a note to this effect and acknowledges that where reference is made in the document to dates during the next few months when applications are anticipated to be referred to planning committee for determination, there is the potential for such anticipated dates to change unavoidably as the coronavirus situation unfolds. Officers will be looking to understand with government, how these unprecedented circumstances will be reflected in decisions such as planning appeals where five-year supply is a factor.

 

10.The Cambridge Local Plan 2018 sets a housing requirement of 14,000 homes to be delivered between 2011 and 2031. The new housing trajectory shows that 14,468 dwellings are expected to be delivered in Cambridge between 2011 and 2031. The South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018 sets a housing requirement of 19,500 dwellings to be delivered between 2011 and 2031. The new housing trajectory shows that 23,502 dwellings are expected to be delivered in South Cambridgeshire between 2011 and 2031. Therefore, together the Local Plans set a housing requirement of 33,500 homes between 2011 and 2031 for Greater Cambridge. The new housing trajectory shows that 37,970 dwellings are expected to be delivered between 2011 and 2031. The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory shows that anticipated housing delivery within each Council’s area is more than its respective housing requirement.

 

Next Steps

 

Once agreed by Cabinet Member for Planning at South Cambridgeshire District Council and the Executive Member for Planning Policy at Cambridge City Council, the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply document (April 2020) will be published on both Councils’ websites.

Decision:

That the Cabinet Member for Planning agrees:

 

a.    the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply document (Appendix 1 of this decision) to be published on the Councils’ websites.

b.    to delegate any further minor editing changes to the Greater Cambridge Housing Trajectory and Five Year Housing Land Supply document to the Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development where they are technical matters.

Reasons for the decision:

The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory is used by the Councils to calculate their five-year housing land supply and to demonstrate that anticipated housing delivery will meet or exceed the housing requirements set out in their Local Plans.

 

The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory and five-year housing land supply calculations show that jointly for Greater Cambridge, the Councils can demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, using the Liverpool methodology and 20% buffer. The Councils jointly have 5.4 years of housing land supply for the 2020-2025 five-year period.

Alternative options considered:

The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory is used by the Councils to calculate their five-year housing land supply and to demonstrate that anticipated housing delivery will meet or exceed the housing requirements set out in their Local Plans.

 

The Greater Cambridge housing trajectory and five-year housing land supply calculations show that jointly for Greater Cambridge, the Councils can demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, using the Liverpool methodology and 20% buffer. The Councils jointly have 5.4 years of housing land supply for the 2020-2025 five-year period.

Publication date: 23/03/2020

Date of decision: 23/03/2020

Effective from: 31/03/2020

Accompanying Documents: