The Council state that the 3300 housing target for Bexhill would deliver 200pa over the remaining 15 years i.e. 3000 dwellings some 200 short of its target and 235 less than the full SHLAA capacity.

More revealing is the fact that only an average of 130 dwellings pa were built from 2001-2007, when economic conditions were clearly more favourable. In the past 12 years output of new homes in Bexhill has only exceeded 200 new homes in one year, and has exceeded 150 new homes in only 5 out of the 12 years. The Wessex Economics report on Housing Delivery at Bexhill and Hastings (June 2013) concluded that the 200 homes pa was challenging as market capacity and potential impact on sale values could lead to oversupply becoming a deterrent on high volumes of new building.

The evidence over the last 12 years backs this up. For the Council to suggest this was due to no major land releases being available over the previous 12 years suggests that Bexhill had no more than 200 units pa available with planning consent in the Bexhill area over that period. This is clearly not correct.What limited the supply of housing was market demand and affordability of new homes in Bexhill over that period. Indeed an arguement can clearly be made that large land releases controlled by one or two large house builders would actually reduce housing supply and choice within Bexhill area in the future.

The current housing trajectory shows housing completions in Bexhill increasing from 29 new homes in 2012/13 to a peak of 290 new homes in 2015/16(in just 2 years time). There is NO evidence for such a leap in delivery justifying this level of increase.

There remains real limitations to further growth in Bexhill because at this level of housing it does not reduce flows on the A259 east of the town centre, while already planned development may not leave any capacity for further flows on local roads in the area confirmed within Mott MacDonald LDF Sensitivity Assessment. (July 2013)