Question submitted by Councillor J Hook
Council notes that Government introduced a revised NPPF in July 2018 outlining a new standard national methodology for assessing housing need that Councils will be required to use. The new methodology takes away any of the limited local control that Teignbridge District Council had over deciding how many houses were needed. From May this year when TDC’s Local Plan reaches its 5th Birthday, Government tells us that the new methodology will be applied in Teignbridge. Our annual housing requirement will increase from 620 to 777 in May.
Council will also be aware of the recent independent assessment of housing need in Devon, commissioned by CPRE, and carried out by respected consultants ORS, who have identified significant flaws in the government methodology. ORS estimate that government have overestimated annual housing need in Devon by over 1000 houses, and in Teignbridge by over 200 per annum.
In light of this information, will the PH for Housing and Planning and the Managing Director write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the LGA, on behalf of our Council, and the residents of Teignbridge, expressing our deep dissatisfaction with the imposition of their needs assessment and ask that they examine again their formula for calculating housing need, in the light of the CPRE evidence.
Minutes:
The following question has been asked by Cllr J Hook
Question
Council notes that Government introduced a revised NPPF in July 2018 outlining a new standard national methodology for assessing housing need that Councils will be required to use. The new methodology takes away any of the limited local control that Teignbridge District Council had over deciding how many houses were needed. From May this year when TDC’s Local Plan reaches its 5th Birthday, Government tells us that the new methodology will be applied in Teignbridge. Our annual housing requirement will increase from 620 to 777 in May.
Council will also be aware of the recent independent assessment of housing need in Devon, commissioned by CPRE, and carried out by respected consultants ORS, who have identified significant flaws in the government methodology. ORS estimate that government have overestimated annual housing need in Devon by over 1000 houses, and in Teignbridge by over 200 per annum.
In light of this information, will the PH for Housing and Planning and the Managing Director write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the LGA, on behalf of our Council, and the residents of Teignbridge, expressing our deep dissatisfaction with the imposition of their needs assessment and ask that they examine again their formula for calculating housing need, in the light of the CPRE evidence.
Response from Portfolio Holder for Planning and Housing
The Government have just confirmed that they are retaining the existing calculation for objectively assessed need, based on the 2014 household projections and the latest (2017) affordability data for each local authority. While they are considering whether a revision to the formula is appropriate in the longer term, they have stated that any such revision will definitely take account of affordability/market factors. It is noted that the CPRE do not propose any method for taking account of affordability or market factors in their work.
Your officers note that the CPRE base their report on the belief that “there is no housing crisis” and that there is no problem with affordability. Hence their reliance on the official household projections produced by the Office of National Statistics. However, the Office of National Statistics themselves advise strongly against using the projections in this way – their official position is that “Household projections are not a prediction or forecast of how many houses should be built in the future.” In particular, they take no account of the impact of housing affordability on the ability of young people to form new households and other key determinants of housing need.
In your officers’ experience, the view that there is no housing crisis or problem with affordability is not tenable in Teignbridge (nor indeed in most of England). It is contradicted by the day to day experiences of officers in the housing service and is not a view held by any reputable housing organisation that your officers are aware of.
Given these points, it does not seem appropriate for the Council to support the views set out in the CPRE report.
In response to Councillor J Hook’s supplementary question regarding the need to write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to confirm why they overestimated the demand for housing in Teignbridge and increased the target by 150 homes. The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning stated that the increase demand for homes had been across the whole country and therefore it would be in appropriate to write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.