Testun llawn:
As set out in representations to Policy DS6, it is considered that the Publication Local Plan is unsound and it does not fulfil the Duty to Cooperate since it does not provide flexibility to meet any of the housing needs that are very likely to arise from neighbouring authorities.
Policy DS20 sets out that, should a need be identified, the Council would review the Local Plan in order to provide for sites to be allocated where they can appropriately meet this need. The National Planning Policy Guidance (NPPG) says that local plans "may be found sound conditional upon a review in whole or in part within five years of the date of adoption". However Policy DS20 does not commit to when a review would take place. Nor is any commitment made in the Local Development Scheme to a review of the Local Plan.
A recent High Court judgement - Grand Union Investments Limited v Dacorum Borough Council [2014] EWHC 1894 (Admin) - established that a Development Plan could be considered sound, even if its housing requirement did not meet the Objectively Assessed Need (OAN) for the area, if it included a commitment to an early review. However, crucially in this case the Council had already embarked upon a review; it was committed to carry out that review within 5 years within the Development Plan and Local Development Scheme; and, due to an oversupply of housing early on in the plan period, a housing shortfall would not emerge until late in the plan period. Therefore the planned review would be able to anticipate and accommodate any potential shortfall.
The only information regarding a likely timetable for review of the Warwick Local Plan is in Appendix 5 to a report to Council on 23rd April 2014. This sets out that the review would commence in 2017/18 with adoption in 2019/20. However this is not written in to a Development Plan Document or Local Development Scheme and therefore it cannot be relied upon.
The Council's own assessment of 5 year housing land supply sets out that only 2.7 years of supply can currently be demonstrated. However the illustrative housing trajectory under Policy DS7 of the Publication Local Plan shows a sudden increase in housing completions, leaping from 262 dwellings to 1,037 dwellings within the space of 2 years. This is an unrealistic trajectory, which assumes that site allocations will start to deliver housing from 2015/16, in the first year after the plan has been adopted. This overly optimistic trajectory cannot be relied upon as a basis for delaying the necessary review of the Local Plan. It is highly likely that a review of the Local Plan would not be able to anticipate and accommodate an additional requirement for housing before a shortfall had emerged. Therefore the plan would not significantly boost the supply of housing, as required by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). It is therefore inappropriate to rely on review of the plan to meet needs arising from outside the district.
Policy DS20 also states that the existence of unmet housing need arising outside the District will not render the Plan out of date. In essence the Council is trying to justify continuing to use the Local Plan as a basis for decision making even though it might not be making provision for housing to meet the OAN for the Housing Market Area (HMA). Paragraph 47 of the NPPF says that local authorities should "[use] their evidence base to ensure that their Local Plan meets the full, objectively assessed needs for market and affordable housing in the housing market area, as far as is consistent with the policies set out in this Framework". Paragraph 47 also says that authorities must "identify and keep up to date every year a supply of sites sufficient to provide five years worth of housing against their housing requirements". It is clear that the five year supply should be assessed against the OAN for the HMA, including meeting needs from other local authorities. There is no justification for ignoring the OAN required to be accommodated from other districts when making decisions on planning applications. Policy DS20 is therefore unsound and the Local Plan is very likely to be rendered out of date early in the plan period.