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ID sylw: 108168

Derbyniwyd: 05/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Bellway Homes (West Midlands)

Asiant : Cerda Planning

We consider that policy should avoid expressing specific densities but instead should make reference to the NPPF and the need to utilise land efficiently and effectively.
This is in the context of a highly material consideration; that being that density is not an indicator of urban quality, some of the Councils highest valued urban areas deliver densities at what might be considered to be very high. By way of worked example, a maisonette doubles the density of a building over a traditional house but has no material effect on the urban environment.
In any event, it is not considered appropriate to defer densities to Design Codes. These will, according to the SWLP, follow after the SWLP is progressed. This means that the Councils are unable to establish what each spatial growth site might deliver in terms of housing yield, which in turn makes it impossible to robustly set out what sites are required to meet the Standard Method and duty to co-operate. It also means that site viability, and thus deliverability, cannot be established with promoters since the infrastructure requirements will be fixed by the SWLP based upon sites with an unquantified yield.