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ID sylw: 108388

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Alscot Estate

Asiant : Jonathan Thompson Land & Consultancy Limited

The Estate welcomes the Council’s acknowledgement that the revised NPPF issued in December 2024 includes a new method for calculating local housing need and that the draft policy direction takes this into account.

From 12 March 2025 the SWLP must be assessed against the policies relating to plan-making in the revised NPPF. Paragraph 62 is clear that Local Plan policies relating to housing needs should, as a minimum, be based on the revised standard method calculation. This calculation should therefore be used rather than the HEDNA.

The Estate broadly supports the approach of identifying three Priority Areas as shown in Figure 5. We have a land interest within potential new settlement E1 and recognise a hybrid approach to the development strategy is required to ensure needs are met.

However, we wish to add that proportionate and sustainable growth can be delivered at rural settlements within priority areas, particularly Priority Area Three. The Estate own land within Alderminster and Clifford Chase that sit within the Priority Area Three. NPPF Paragraph 73 acknowledges the important contribution small-to-medium sites can make to meeting housing requirements, Paragraph 83 emphasises that policies should ‘identify opportunities for villages to grow and thrive, especially where this will support local services’. Consideration should be given to how sustainable growth of rural communities can help to achieve the forecasted housing need.

It should be made clearer in the next iteration of this draft policy direction that small-to-medium sites can be allocated within Priority Area Three. These could be built out relatively quickly and help the Council achieve a healthy land supply in the first five years of the local plan period.