Agenda, decisions and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The Planning Portfolio Holder signed, as a correct record, the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 August 2017.

At that meeting, the Planning Portfolio Holder had signed the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 July 2017 (incorrectly stated as 25 August 2017), subject to an amendment to Minute 3 of the July minutes (South Cambridgeshire Local Plan – Review of Local Green Space). While the signed Minutes of the meeting held on 26 July 2017 could not now be amended further, Councillor Nigel Cathcart referred to that amendment, commenting that Clear Farm, Bassingbourn was a special place considered by the community to be important to that community.

The Planning Portfolio Holder agreed that the consultation response set out in Appendix A to the report from the Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development be submitted to the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), subject to:

Question 13 - In reviewing guidance on testing plans and policies for viability, what amendments could be made to improve current practice?

In the final sentence, namely “This will enable larger growth sites, which have substantial up-front infrastructure costs, to proceed with below policy compliant levels of affordable housing, if they are not supported by other infrastructure funding”, replace the word “proceed” with the word “commence”.

Question 19 - Having regard to the measures we have already identified in the housing White Paper, are there any other actions that could increase build out rates?

Under the heading ‘Build out’ (first paragraph, second line), add the words “…including Council homes…” immediately after the words “all tenures”.

Under the heading ‘Build out’, add a third paragraph suggesting the setting out of shorter commencement times on a national basis. The number of planning permissions granted should be given significantly more weight than houses actually built, so that local authorities were not penalised because of developers maintaining ‘land banks’ and because of factors beyond those local authorities’ control.

Under the heading ‘Build out’, make the point that housing delivery in South Cambridgeshire has been held back by the length of time the Council’s Local Plan has been at examination (submitted Spring 2014, adoption expected Spring 2018), which delay has particularly affected new strategic sites.

Under the heading ‘Prematurity’, redraft the final paragraph to indicate clearly the effect on South Cambridgeshire of the numbers of new dwellings granted planning permission because of speculative planning applications, including the total number of dwellings involved.

The Planing Portfolio Holder considered the contents of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) consultation on planning for the right homes in the right places, ed response from South Cambridgeshire District Council.

In response to the Portfolio Holder, the Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development said that there was no clarity as to when the DCLG would respond to this consultation exercise. Those present discussed a number of issues arising from the consultation, including

·        the length of time taken so far to get the Local Plan adopted

·        density

·        the number of speculative applications

·        neighbourhood plans

·        Green Belt

·        The importance of balancing housing development with employment

·        Sustainability

The Planning Portfolio Holder agreed that the consultation response set out in Appendix A to the report from the Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development be submitted to the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), subject to:

Question 13 - In reviewing guidance on testing plans and policies for viability, what amendments could be made to improve current practice?

In the final sentence, namely “This will enable larger growth sites, which have substantial up-front infrastructure costs, to proceed with below policy compliant levels of affordable housing, if they are not supported by other infrastructure funding”, replace the word “proceed” with the word “commence”.

Question 19 - Having regard to the measures we have already identified in the housing White Paper, are there any other actions that could increase build out rates?

Under the heading ‘Build out’ (first paragraph, second line), add the words “…including Council homes…” immediately after the words “all tenures”.

Under the heading ‘Build out’, add a third paragraph suggesting the setting out of shorter commencement times on a national basis. The number of planning permissions granted should be given significantly more weight than houses actually built, so that local authorities were not penalised because of developers maintaining ‘land banks’ and because of factors beyond those local authorities’ control.

Under the heading ‘Build out’, make the point that housing delivery in South Cambridgeshire has been held back by the length of time the Council’s Local Plan has been at examination (submitted Spring 2014, adoption expected Spring 2018), which delay has particularly affected new strategic sites.

Under the heading ‘Prematurity’, redraft the final paragraph to indicate clearly the effect on South Cambridgeshire of the numbers of new dwellings granted planning permission because of speculative planning applications, including the total number of dwellings involved.

Those present note the work programme attached to the agenda.

The next Planning Portfolio Holder meeting has been scheduled for Monday 11 December 2017, starting at 10.00am. Meeting dates in the New year, and up to May 2019 have yet to be confirmed.

The next Planning Portfolio Holder meeting had been scheduled for Monday 11 December 2017, starting at 9.30am.