Government changes to house building policies and the age of the Bedford Borough Council Local Plan means an extra 240 new homes have to be built in the borough every year.
The larger house-building target is a result of changes to the National Planning Policy Framework last month and the council’s local plan’s recent fifth birthday, a meeting heard.
The borough council’s chief officer for planning, infrastructure and economic growth, Jon Shortland, told the Planning Committee (Monday, 20 January) that until December the target for new homes was 970 per year.
“It’s now in the region of 1,210, that’s around a 30 per cent increase,” Mr Shortland said.
“Unfortunately one of the other things which changed in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) announcement in December was that we’re no longer able to count what has been achieved above target in previous years.
“So where we’ve been over-delivering for the last few years as a council the government is no longer saying that counts towards meeting [our] five-year target going forward.
“They’re saying ‘well, thanks for doing that, but we’re starting again with a fresh slate’.
“The upshot of all that is that our current position is that we’ve gone from a land supply of just over six years in December to one of three and a half years as of last Wednesday,” he said.
The committee heard that this means planning applications can’t be turned down if the only reason is that it doesn’t align with the council’s allocations policy.
“That is no longer sufficient,” Mr Shortland said. “There may be other sufficient reasons, there may be flooding issues or highway issues or
heritage issues, those can all still be taken into account.
“The balance is tipped against us and that situation will be maintained until we publish a new plan, and our Local Plan 2040 is still in examination although that examination is currently paused.
“Or until we write a new plan, or until we grant sufficient permissions to make up the shortfall between three and a half years and five years.
“And that shortfall is just under two thousand houses, so it’s quite a big difference,” he said.
When asked if allocations set in neighbourhood development plans still had weight when deciding on a planning application Mr Shortland said neighbourhood development plans give some “added protection”.
“If it’s been made within the last five years,” he said.
“So at the moment all of the neighbourhood plan neighbourhoods have been made in Bedford are in that position. And they can be reviewed and kept up to date so that in five years time five-year protection is extended.
“Obviously, it has to be done in the right legal way, you can’t just have a quick look at it, say yes, it’s fine, let’s renew it and update it. It needs to be done properly,” he said.
by John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
