Object

Representation ID: 7564

Received: 21/09/2021

Respondent: L&P Chess Ltd

Agent: Eclipse Planning Service

We note what the Council describes as a “stepped trajectory” approach which involves keeping the annual requirement at 970 dwellings until 2030 and increasing it to 1,580 dwellings for the remainder of the Plan period.
Phasing of this kind has long been discouraged by Governments and finds no explicit support in current guidance. The potential practical difficulties would not so much involve restraining growth in the first ten years as increasing it suddenly and markedly (by 63%) for the last ten. We note what the Council considers to be the underlying constraints – the timing of the completion of the East-West rail link and the improvements to the Black Cat junction on the A1. We also understand the need for infrastructure to facilitate or at least keep up with development. Nevertheless, we see that the Council itself describes at paragraph 3.3 the increase in the annual requirement from 970 dwellings to 1,275 dwellings (305, or 31%) as a considerable challenge. An increase of nearly two thirds in the annual housing requirement (from 970 to 1580 dwellings, or 63%) halfway through the Plan period would be an even greater challenge and is in our view wholly inappropriate and unrealistic. The Council should instead adopt a broadly level trajectory where the inevitable fluctuations in market demand (and indirectly the provision of affordable housing as part of mixed schemes) can more easily be accommodated and managed.