Comment

Representation ID: 22487

Received: 11/10/2021

Respondent: South Staffordshire Council, Planning and Strategic Services

Urban Capacity Review Update May 2021

The published Black Country Urban Capacity Review Update May 2021 provides evidence of the
extent of the housing shortfall arising from the Black Country’s urban area, informing the housing
requirement set out in Policy HOU1 of the consultation document. We note and welcome the
attempts to maximise urban supply set out in this document and agree with the conclusion that
there will be a substantial shortfall arising from the Black Country urban area up to 2039. This is
consistent with the GBHMA-wide picture given in the GBHMA Strategic Growth Study 2018, which
indicated a significant shortfall would remain at a GBHMA-scale up to 2036 even if significant
density increases were realised in land supply across the GBHMA.

South Staffordshire therefore considers that the Black Country Urban Capacity Review Update May
2021 offers a reasonable basis on which to progress Duty to Co-operate discussions regarding the
Black Country’s urban housing shortfall within the GBHMA. However, before the extent of the
Black Country’s urban capacity is finalised through the submitted Black Country Plan, there are matters that we believe could be more fully addressed within the document, that may then help to
inform ongoing Duty to Co-operate discussions regarding the exact extent of the shortfall and the
scale of contributions required to address it.



Firstly, we note that the urban capacity review has sought to identify urban land opportunities
from annual updates of individual local authority SHLAAs, informed by regular call for sites
exercises. We acknowledge that this approach largely conforms to the historic approach set out in
Planning Practice Guidance for establishing housing land availability within an area. However, there
is a need for greater consistency on how urban supply is assessed across the conurbation, given
the Duty to Co-operate implications of shortfalls arising from this area. Specifically, Birmingham
City Council have recently commissioned assistance from the PropTech sector to find innovative
ways to survey its urban land supply, allowing it to identify and survey a far larger number of infill
site opportunities than would otherwise be possible through a traditional SHLAA exercise. This is
despite previous SHLAAs being found to be consistent with guidance at the time through the
Birmingham Development Plan examination. This work does not appear to be limited to increasing
densities in established urban centres and appears more reflective of the approach advocated by
the more recently published National Model Design Code, which encourages “[c]oding for the
intensification of lower density areas that use land inefficiently”1 when planning for an efficient use
of urban land. For consistency in approach across the housing market area to addressing the 35%
urban uplift in housing needs, we consider that the Black Country should work with the West
Midlands Combined Authority to explore similar approaches to identify further urban supply to
meet its needs.

We would also welcome a re-examination of the approach to windfall allowances within the urban
capacity review, which paragraph 2.1.11 confirms have been based upon past land supply trends
on small sites (i.e. sites of 9 homes or less). This suggests that future trends will not have an impact
upon windfall development realised within the Black Country and that there is no realistic scope
for windfall development on sites or 10 or more homes. Whilst we understand the desire to pursue
a conservative approach to such matters, we do not consider it fully reflects the opportunities for
windfalls identified in paragraph 71 of the NPPF, which also requires expected future trends to be
considered in establishing any realistic windfall allowance. We would support a slightly more
ambitious windfall allowance that had regard to recent and upcoming permitted development
changes (e.g. Class E to residential) that may not be fully reflected in current past trends, or the
potential for landowner intentions to change during the plan period on non-residential uses.
Given the significant scale of the Black Country’s housing shortfalls, we do not anticipate that
exploring the approaches set out above would alter the need for Duty to Co-operate discussions to
address housing shortfalls. However, they would offer greater comfort to surrounding authorities
within the GBHMA that the Black Country is truly maximising all available housing land within its
urban area and help to reinforce the necessity of housing contributions from other areas of the
GBHMA.

1 National Model Design Code – Part 2 Guidance Notes, Section U.1.i ‘Efficient Use of Land’