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ID sylw: 108453

Derbyniwyd: 07/03/2025

Ymatebydd: Magdalen College, Oxford

Asiant : Savills

Given the significant increase in housing need that the Local Plan will need to accommodate, an extra 12,975 dwellings to meet the NPPF figure relative to the HEDNA, Magdalen College, Oxford is strongly of the opinion that the Council will need to plan positively for a variety of new housing developments. Whilst the majority of new homes will no doubt be provided at new settlements and strategic growth locations, there will clearly be a new need to allocate smaller sites too. The very large allocations will likely take many years to deliver due to the need to provide supporting infrastructure. The College considers that smaller allocations will have a crucial role to play in helping the Council maintain a five-year supply of housing land during the early years of the Plan before the strategic scale allocations begin to deliver.
There is a need to provide a range and choice of sites, a need for flexibility and viability considerations to be taken into account and a need for the Council to consider whether higher levels of open-market housing are required in order to secure the delivery of affordable housing and/or support economic growth. Consequently, we strongly support the Council’s suggestion that it will consider, “the need for the SWLP to identify a number of small sites in order to ensure provision of a 5-year housing land supply…”.
Our Client’s land at Goose Lane is ideal for being a small to medium scale allocation in the Local Plan. It is a 1.7 hectare site capable of accommodating approximately 35 dwellings. It is relatively unconstrained and access can be easily achieved from Goose Lane. The development of this site would form a natural second phase to the Corfield Drive development that has been delivered.
Crucially, this site has already been assessed and deemed suitable for development as part of the Quinton Neighbourhood Plan. Policy HO.2 of that document reads, “The Plan safeguards land on the east side of Goose Lane (as shown at Figure 12) as a Reserve Housing Site, with the potential for future residential development of up to 30 dwellings. The safeguarded site will only be released during the plan period if it can be demonstrated through the submission of evidence that there is an identified housing need for its early release having regard to the criteria in Policy CS.16 of the Core Strategy 2011-2031.”
Consequently, given the increased housing need discussed above, this emerging Plan should allocate this site that has already been positively assessed, both within the Neighbourhood Plan and Site Allocations Plan.
As set out at paragraph 73 of the NPPF, the allocation of small and medium sites can not only make an important contribution to meeting the housing requirement of an area, but they are essential for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) housebuilders to deliver new homes. The Housebuilding Market Study by the CMA (26 February 2024) sets out that “the planning system is one of the main barriers faced by SME housebuilders” (paragraph 4.181). The paragraph goes onto to say that “several studies suggest that the planning system favours large sites”. The Local Plan should identify a “good mix of sites” as per paragraph 73 of the NPPF.
The site at Goose Lane for circa 35 dwellings could not only contribute to the immediate delivery of housing in the district but could also support SME housebuilders. This can also support the local economy within Warwickshire by providing local jobs and supporting the local supply chain this delivering cumulative economic benefits.
The Draft Policy Direction continues to suggest that housing site outside the Green Belt will be supported within and adjacent Built Up Area Boundaries (BUABs). This is also strongly supported in principle. However, it is important that any threshold is not overly prescriptive so as to exclude potential development sites such as the College’s interest at Goose Lane. Any threshold should be flexible and relative to the size of the settlement.
The principle of a settlement hierarchy classification is supported and it is noted that Lower Quinton currently sits within the Local Service Village Category. However, it is vital for landowners, developers and the general
public alike to be able to understand the methodology that will be used to classify the settlements. Furthermore, it is equally important to understand how the resultant Settlement Hierarchy is used as a basis for determining where new housing allocations are directed.
Without this information, the College simply reserves the opportunity to comment on any future evidence and policy approach in respect of this principle.
The College considers that this policy should have provision for supporting the conversion of existing buildings, both within built-up area boundaries and within the open countryside. Agricultural buildings that are no longer suitable for modern agriculture provide opportunities for re-use to residential or alternative uses. There are many examples of the successful conversion of agricultural buildings, not just of brick or stone buildings, but also of traditional Dutch barns or modern barns that are redundant. The policy should therefore have flexibility to see the re-use of different buildings come forward.