Comment

Representation ID: 698

Received: 02/07/2007

Respondent: Persimmon Homes (Essex)

Agent: RPS Planning and Development

Paragraph 4.6.10 of the draft core strategy, however, proposes a policy that would allocate the total residual requirement after completions, of 3700, to the various tiers of settlements proposed but without indicating how much of this will be on previously developed land and how much on greenfield land.

This whole approach needs to be re-worked and refined to explain:
* exactly how the Council has arrived at its figures;
* what assessments have been made of whether existing commitments are actually developable;
* precisely how the Council's strategies and policies for housing delivery, including proposed locations for new housing, will meet the government's policy requirements; and in particular
* to demonstrate how the Council will manage the process to ensure that a continuous 5-year supply of deliverable sites i.e. housing land that is available, suitable and achievable, is maintained over the 15 years from adoption of the core strategy.

At present it is not possible to say that the Council's approach is sound, therefore this whole issue will need to be properly addressed in the submission document, with up to date supporting evidence documents.

What is clear, however, is that the scale of additional housing required is likely to be such that large greenfield urban extensions will inevitably be required and the policy framework for these, including locations, consideration of the timing of implementation and broad phasing, should be provided in the submission core strategy.