Response by the House Builders Federation to the Rother Development and Sites Allocations Local Plan

Thank you for consulting the Home Builders Federation (HBF) on the Development and Sites Allocations Local Plan. The HBF is the principal representative body of the housebuilding industry in England and Wales and our representations reflect the views of discussions with our membership of national and multinational corporations through to regional developers and small local housebuilders. Our members account for over 80% of all new housing built in England and Wales in any one year.
In writing our representation we have assumed that the plan will be examined against the latest National Planning Policy Framework and Planning Practice Guidance and consider that the latest policy framework should apply regardless of when the plan is submitted. The primary reason for the use of the transitionary period was to allow those authorities preparing plans on the basis of existing housing needs assessments to continue their progress. As the DaSA is not considered to be a strategic plan, as it neither amends a spatial strategy or proposes to increase its development requirements, it should be considered against the latest NPPF and PPG regardless of whether it is submitted prior to the end of the transitionary period.

Strategic policies affecting housing delivery

DEN3: Strategic gaps

The policy is unsound as it is not justified, effective or consistent with national policy
The Development and Sites Allocations Local Plan (DaSA) sets out the development management policies and site allocations required to deliver the level of development needs set out in the Core Strategy. This plan was adopted in 2014 and with regard to residential development seeks to deliver 5,700 homes between 2011 and 2028, an average of 316 dwellings per annum. This level of delivery is substantially below that required by the standard methodology (690 dpa using the latest affordable ratios and the 2014 based household projections). Paragraph 3-030-20180913 of Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) outlines that the housing target identified in strategic policies should be used as the starting point for assessing the five year housing land supply "for the first 5 years of the plan" As such from September 2019 the Council will be required to use the assessment of need resulting from the Standard Methodology when assessing its land supply requirements. Given that the Council's current level of supply is below that required using the standard methodology any policies relating to the delivery of housing will be out of date. Any decision making on applications will have to be made on the basis of the NPPF and, as established in paragraph 11 of the NPPF and paragraph 3-038-20180913 of PPG, the presumption in favour of sustainable development. In particular paragraph 3-038 of PPG states that this is undertaken to "enable the development of alternative sites to meet the policy requirement". This suggests that where there are policies that restrict development, but which are not highlighted in foot note 6 of paragraph 11, then such policies should be ignored.

DEN3 is an example of such a policy and should not be set out in the DaSA. This policy has the potential to limit the scope of the Council to meet housing needs in future which could enable the Council to meet its housing needs as established through the standard methodology. In addition, strategic gaps, as proposed in DEN3, are not highlighted as a policy that might restrict the overall scale, type and distribution of housing as set out in paragraph 11 footnote 6 of the NPPF. If the Council wishes to continue the application of this local policy, it should do so through a Local Plan review. Paragraph 33 of the National Planning Policy highlights the Government's concerns regarding the timely review of local plans where housing needs have changed significantly. This paragraph states that local plans are likely to require an early review where "local housing need is expected to change significantly in the near future".

We understand that the Council is currently undertaking a review of its Local Plan Core Strategy document, however according to the Council's Local Development Scheme this will not be adopted, even with a very ambitious timescale until December 2020. Given that the current assessment of needs will be considerably lower than that established by the standard methodology we would suggest that the Council does not seek to include policies in the DaSA that will restrict their ability to meet housing needs until a new Local Plan can be adopted. Only through a review of the Core Strategy can the Council's whole spatial strategy, including he use of strategic gaps, be considered against an up to date assessment of housing needs using the standard methodology.

Recommendation

For the plan to be considered sound both these policies should be removed from DaSA.


Conclusion

At present we do not consider the plan to be sound, as measured against the tests of soundness set out in paragraph 182 of the NPPF, in the following key areas:
* The inclusion of policy DEN3 on strategic gaps that could restrict housing supply on the basis of an out of date housing requirement;
* Failure to fully justify the need for the nationally described internal space standards
* Insufficient evidence to support the need for all homes to be built to part M4(2)
* Requirement for 5% to 10% of plots on sites of over to be provided for self-builders or custom housebuilding is not consistent with national policy and has not been justified.

We hope these representations are of assistance in taking the plan forward to the next stage of plan preparation and examination. I would also like to express my interest in attending any relevant hearing sessions at the Examination in Public. Should you require any further clarification on the issues raised in this representation please contact me.