"Very concerned" – council message to government over plans to double house building targets for Shropshire

Shropshire Council is set to tell the government it has “very significant concerns” over proposed new government targets, which would see the annual target for new homes in the county leap from 1,070 to 2,059 per year.

The new Labour government launched a consultation on draft amendments to the national planning framework (NPPF) shortly after winning the general election in July, which it says will support its ambition to build 1.5 million homes during the course of the current Parliament.

The NPPF is the government’s master planning document, which sets out how planning policy should be applied by councils in England.

In a 54-page response to the proposals set to go before the council’s cabinet next week, the authority outlines its scepticism over the sustainability of some of the proposed reforms.

Shropshire Council says the methodology places unfair targets on rural areas, which may not be able to sustain higher targets of growth, and greater burden for the proposed delivery of 300,000 homes per year should be placed upon urban authorities where better infrastructure already exists.

“Shropshire Council considers the results of the ‘standard methodology’ for rural areas, including Shropshire, are likely to be unachievable,” says the council’s draft response.

“It is strongly considered the housing market in these locations cannot and will not sustain the level of housing identified through this proposed ‘standard methodology’ on a consistent basis over a normal plan period.

“This is due to a range of factors including the capacity of developers, availability of labour/expertise within the sector; availability of raw materials (with proposed changes to the NPPF silent on the issue of mineral planning); and manufacturing capacity to produce other necessary construction materials.

“This is demonstrated by recent trends in Shropshire, where delivery has been very significant, where over the last 10 years average housing delivery is 1,540 dwellings per annum.”

A summary of the response set to be presented to cabinet will say the council’s being able to deliver their housing targets requires “a sensible, credible and sustainable local housing need figure, and one which is capable of being delivered consistently.”

“The Council has very significant concern about the ability of the area to consistently deliver over 2,000 dwellings per year,” it adds.

“To put this in context Shropshire has never achieved such levels of delivery, and instead generally delivers between 1,400 to 1,500 dwellings on average in a sustainable manner.”

Other changes proposed by the Government include a review of the green belt which includes the introduction of a new category known as the “Grey belt”, poor quality green belt land which may have been previously developed on.

In its response, the council expresses general support for developing brownfield sites, but has asked for “grey belt” land to be more clearly defined by the government to only include previously developed sites.

The council also says it is “disappointed and concerned” regarding transitional arrangements which would require a review of the authority’s emerging local plan, which is at an advanced stage.