Draft Black Country Plan

Comment

Representation ID: 22501

Received: 07/10/2021

Respondent: Persimmon Homes West Midlands

Agent: Planning Prospects Ltd

Policy CSP1 -- Development Strategy


It is fundamentally important that the Black Country Plan (BCP) properly identifies the development needs of the Black Country and fully provides for them within the Plan through to 2039. In this regard it has to be recognised that the current Black Country Core
Strategy (BCCS) has not been successful in its approach and a new Strategy is essential if the growth needs of the Black Country are to be successfully met. The BCCS focused on the re• use of brownfield, often previous employment, land to meet development needs, including for housing. However, the challenges to their delivery have not been over come and the market has consistently shown a requirement for choice and variety in sites for residential development. The experience during the BCCS period has shown that whilst making best
use of existing brownfield land within the urban area is important, a strategy that focuses
too heavily on this, particularly in seeking to meet the need for residential development, will not succeed and will result in a shortfall of available development land to meet needs. A more balanced approach is needed and seeking to continue an approach which has only
been partly successful would not be sound.


Support is given to the Objectives of the BCP which include the provision of, "housing that meets fill our needs". The Strategic Priorities in seeking to meet that objective include, "to provide a range and choice of accommodation, house types and tenures to meet the needs of current and future residents", and, "to improve and diversify the Black Country housing offer". These points - around comprehensively meeting need; providing range and choice; and delivering improvement and diversification in housing provision -are important and must influence the policies of the BCP. Paragraph 1.43, and elsewhere highlights key challenges to deliver provision of good quality housing to meet the needs of a growing population and accommodating significant housing and employment needs. It acknowledges that to meet those needs there is a requirement to assess and review the
Green Belt and identify areas for growth in the context of a deficit in the supply of brownfield land. Exceptional circumstances clearly exist in this context such that it is essential that Green Belt land is released for development as there is simply not enough brownfield land which suitable, available and deliverable to meet development needs.

Policy CSP1 -- Development Strategy should be explicit in recognising the need for the release of Green Belt land. Reference is made to, "delivering the majority of development in the existing urban area", and whilst that remains relevant, the BCP must also acknowledge that a change in strategic direction away from the BCCS is necessary and this will include the delivery of development in other areas including Green Belt. This is implicit in the reference to growth in locations on the edge of the Urban Area, but the only explicit mention of the Green Belt in Policy CSPl refers to its protection.

Equally, the BCP very clearly relies on exporting a significant amount of its development requirement -some 28,239 new homes, and 210ha of employment land - to other authorities through the Duty to Co-operate. Whilst we comment on this further in our
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representations elsewhere below, exporting development need must be reflected and made absolutely explicit in the Development Strategy.

A Development Strategy that relies on Green Belt release to help meet development needs must refer and commit to that release, and Policy CSPl is not explicit in that regard, neither is it explicit in the strategy approach which is exporting very substantial development needs (equivalent to some 37% of the overall requirement) to other areas and must be explicit on this point.

In summary;


• It is important that the plan meets the full needs for development in the area
• A revised Development Strategy is supported which recognises the failings in the approach of the previous BCCS and a more balanced provision of sites to support delivery is essential
• Exceptional Circumstances are clearly evident given the lack of supply of sites from other sources to meet development needs
• The Development Strategy should be explicit in recognising that Green Belt will be required to be released to meet needs
• Further it should be explicit in recognising that a component of need will not be accommodated within the Black Country and will need to be delivered across boundaries

Comment

Representation ID: 22502

Received: 07/10/2021

Respondent: Persimmon Homes West Midlands

Agent: Planning Prospects Ltd

Policy HOU1 - Development Strategy


As drafted the BCP raises some very serious concerns over its inability to meet the minimum housing needs of the Black Country over the Plan period, and by some considerable margin. The Plan does not properly address the scale of unmet need it has identified and relies too heavily on neighbouring authorities to deliver its unmet needs. In doing so it fails to address in any tangible way how the homes needed in the Black Country during the BCP period can ever be delivered and fails to meet the tests of soundness set out in the Framework.

Even those sites that are relied upon in the draft BCP, as set out in its Table 3, are unlikely to deliver even the 47,837 net new homes it anticipates over the Plan period, such that the
true extent of unmet need within the BCA areas is likely to be significantly greater than the already substantial 28,239 homes it acknowledges.

In this respect, Paragraph 61 points directly to the "positively prepared" test of soundness (in particular) as set out at Paragraph 35 of the Framework. Plans are "positively prepared" if they provide a strategy which "as a minimum, seeks to meet the area's objectively
assessed needs1; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development" (our emphasis underlined).




1 Footnote 21 of the Framework sets out that "where this relates to housing, such needs should be assessed using a clear and justified method, as set out in paragraph 61 of this Framework".


2
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Policy HOUl of the draft BCP sets out that sufficient land will be provided to deliver at least
47,837 net new homes over the period 2020 - 2039. In its justification to Policy HOUl the draft BCP sets out that this will deliver a 10% increase in housing stock but confirms that will accommodate only 63% of current Local Housing Need up to 2039 within the Black Country, noting the Local Housing Need (LHN), or the minimum number of homes needed, in the Black Country over the BCP plan period is 76,076 homes when calculated following the
PPG's Standard Method2• The draft BCP (paragraph 3.21 for example) recognises that this amounts to a shortfall of 28,239 homes, or in other words 37% of the minimum number of homes needed in the Black Country will not be delivered by the Black Country Authorities
{BCA) between 2020 and 2039.


The BCP sets out that the BCA are asking their neighbouring authorities to work with them to meet this substantial shortfall under the "Duty to Cooperate" {DTC). The draft BCP refers to the current position being set out in the Draft Plan Statement of Consultation which will be elaborated on at Publication stage.

The Statement of Consultation sets out that those neighbouring authorities being relied on by the BCA include South Staffordshire, Lichfield, Cannock Chase, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin and indicates that currently there have been offers from those authorities amounting to between 8,000 and 9,500 homes. This approach will not, by some margin, deliver the minimum number of homes currently needed in the Black Country over the BCP period. There is no explanation in the plan as to how the sizeable shortfall, or the homes that are needed in the Black Country over the BCP period, will be made up merely that "the engagement will extend beyond the adoption of this plan and will build on the partnership approach developed across the Greater Birmingham and Black Country Housing Market Area to address the combined housing shortfalls of the Birmingham and Black Country Authorities in particular". In essence, the draft BCP appears to be suggesting that its very significant unmet housing need will be dealt with at some point in the future as part of an already significant regional scale strategic challenge, without any clear or specific indication
of exactly how that will be achieved, or what guarantees or fallback mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that the Black Country's housing needs will be met.

This approach has not been successful in the Region previously as the West Midlands has struggled to meet the unmet needs of Birmingham for a number of years, following the adoption of the Birmingham Development Plan {2011 to 2031) in January 2017 with its stated housing shortfall of circa 37,900 homes. Indeed, the Black Country Authorities are relying on some of the same authorities that Birmingham City Council was relying upon to meet their unmet need including South Staffordshire and Lichfield for example. This unmet need is only likely to increase post 2031 as Birmingham grapples with an increased requirement for housing under the new Standard Methodology, a period commensurate with the latter part of the BCP period.

In essence the BCP need to;






2 Calculated in the Black Country Housing Market Assessment: Final Report (March 2021)


3
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• More clearly address its inability to meet the minimum identified housing needs of the BCA over the Plan period

• Reconsider its over reliance on neighbouring GBBCHMA authorities to address its needs.

The net plan requirement is exacerbated even by a cursory review of the component sources of housing land supply, not least the following;

Increasing Housing Density- whilst some additional supply will be achieved through increasing density, this must be balanced with market demands. Whilst some sites could achieve a slightly higher density where market evidence supports this and still makes the site deliverable, it will not be suitable for all sites. Even then, increasing development densities on existing BCCS allocation sites will result in minimal increases to the Black Country's housing supply over the Plan period.

Converting Employment Land to Residential Use - It is clear that there are numerous challenges associated with bringing housing development forward on employment sites and a number of those relied upon in the BCCS have been removed as they are not suitable or developable for housing. Despite this, Table 3 nonetheless indicates that 3,091 homes (6.5% of the total anticipated supply) are still anticipated from occupied employment sites, even with the 15% discount - raising questions as to whether these sites in the anticipated housing supply are truly suitable or developable for residential use and also why these sites are being lost for employment use when the BCA have such a significant shortfall in employment land supply and cannot meet their identified employment needs to the tune of
211 ha of land.


Windfall - The draft BCP's anticipated supply also includes a sizeable windfall allowance of
8,463 homes (or 17.3% of the total anticipated supply). The Policy justification sets out that this allowance is robust as it "reflects historic completion rates for sites of less than ten homes". Paragraph 71 of the Framework says Local Planning Authorities may make an allowance for windfall sites if they have compelling evidence that such sites will provide a reliable source of supply and any allowance should be realistic having regard to the strategic housing land availability assessment, historic windfall delivery rates and expected future trends (our emphasis underlined). The BCA's reliance on historic completion rates only suggests that its windfall allowance is not supported by compelling evidence that such sites will continue to provide a reliable source of supply as required by the Framework.

Demolitions - The total net housing supply identified in Table 3 (amounting to the 47,837 net new homes referenced in Policy HOU1) is derived from a gross figure of 48,908 homes and deducting 323 homes from "Dudley Estimated Housing Renewal Demolitions" and 748 homes from "Small-scale demolition windfalls". The Urban Capacity Review Update (May
2021), however, sets out that Dudley's 10 Year Asset Management Strategy (October 2018) identified around 2,500 homes (some 12% of the Council's stock) considered not viable and red-flagged for review for strategic investment, de-investment or demolition.

Support

Representation ID: 22503

Received: 07/10/2021

Respondent: Persimmon Homes West Midlands

Agent: Planning Prospects Ltd

Policy DSA1 (DUH208) - Land South of Holbeache Lane, Kingswinford


Persimmon Homes are concerned to ensure in these representations that the BCP;


• Identifies and meets the full development needs of the Black Country
• That a balanced range of sites are identified in order to address the failings of the previous BCCS
• The sources of supply of land for housing are robust, reliable, suitable and deliverable
• That undue reliance is not placed on sources of supply that are unlikely to deliver and the plan properly plans for development without undue reliance on unplanned windfall
• That the need for Green Belt release is acknowledged as an essential part of the
Development Strategy to meet development needs
• That the maximum level of development is provided for within the Plan before a residual unmet need is identified
• A clear strategy is identified to address such unmet need, evidenced through commitments in the Duty to Co-operate

What is evident from these concerns is that the sites currently identified within the plan are critical to meeting need, but in themselves alone will not meet the needs identified and more land beyond those identified will certainly be needed.

Support is given to land at Holbeache Lane which is a site which is viable, suitable, available and deliverable to meet housing needs and has been promoted for development by Persimmon for some time. It is a critical site in the projected supply in the context of the above wider concerns regarding the Plan and should be earmarked for early delivery in the trajectory- in the Plan, the site is anticipated for delivery from 2030 to 2035 (155 homes) with the balance (175 homes) from 2035 to 2039 but the site could be brought forward immediately and to a much quick delivery timeframe with full delivery within 5-7 years.

Appended here is a supporting promotional document which explains fully the merits of the site and vision for a sustainable, high quality residential development. The site is in an ideal accessible location for new housing. It has no technical constraints to its development and would deliver a high quality mix of new homes. The site would make an important contribution to meeting the considerable future needs for housing, including affordable housing in the Black Country in coming years. The Document provides a detailed description of the site and the surrounding area. It sets out the future vision for the development and explains how the proposals respond positively to the opportunities which the site presents, in particular in terms of landscape and biodiversity. The aim is to deliver a scheme with a distinctive sense of place. Attractive new homes will be provided in a mature landscape setting with extensive new areas of public open space and areas managed for ecology and biodiversity gains.

The Masterplan sets out how the site could be developed to deliver a high quality, residential development in a sustainable location on the edge of Kingswinford. Careful consideration has been given to the site's development, with a scheme that will deliver up



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to 350 new homes (the site is allocated with an indicative net capacity of 330 dwellings within the plan but Persimmons own masterplanning shows a potential for around 350 dwellings, only slightly above 40 dpa). There will be a mix of types and tenures including affordable housing, a new site access, links to existing footpaths, protection of established hedgerows and trees and the creation of new public footpaths, cycle routes and public open space for new and existing residents alike. The site has particular merit, in line with the principles for the site's development which are set out in the Plan, in that;


• When assessed against Green Belt objectives, the site contributes little to Green Belt purposes and would not undermine wider objects of the Green Belt in this area
• The site will establish a new community with integrated Green Infrastructure and connected areas of public open space.
• It provides informal recreation opportunities through generous public open green space incorporating recreational routes as well as children's equipped play.
• The site will provide much needed new housing, easily accessed directly off Wolverhampton Road which is the main transport corridor entering Kingswinford from the north.
• Consideration has been made of opportunities for greenway connections to employment areas to the south and east of the site.
• The proposal retains the majority of existing vegetation (access will require some removal but can be readily mitigated); trees and hedgerows as well as protecting and incorporating the area of woodland to the east of the site.
• It creates significant publicly accessible green space which enhances and reinforces the existing site features, through new woodland, trees and hedgerow planting together with a well- considered SuDS scheme, combining to provide an extensive network of green infrastructure for the residential development.
• The layout protects and improves existing wildlife habitats as well as creating new features to improve the overall local biodiversity gain.
• It seeks to embrace climate change measures where practicable.

Policy CSP1 -- Development Strategy


It is fundamentally important that the Black Country Plan (BCP) properly identifies the development needs of the Black Country and fully provides for them within the Plan through to 2039. In this regard it has to be recognised that the current Black Country Core
Strategy (BCCS) has not been successful in its approach and a new Strategy is essential if the growth needs of the Black Country are to be successfully met. The BCCS focused on the re• use of brownfield, often previous employment, land to meet development needs, including for housing. However, the challenges to their delivery have not been over come and the market has consistently shown a requirement for choice and variety in sites for residential development. The experience during the BCCS period has shown that whilst making best
use of existing brownfield land within the urban area is important, a strategy that focuses
too heavily on this, particularly in seeking to meet the need for residential development, will not succeed and will result in a shortfall of available development land to meet needs. A more balanced approach is needed and seeking to continue an approach which has only
been partly successful would not be sound.


Support is given to the Objectives of the BCP which include the provision of, "housing that meets fill our needs". The Strategic Priorities in seeking to meet that objective include, "to provide a range and choice of accommodation, house types and tenures to meet the needs of current and future residents", and, "to improve and diversify the Black Country housing offer". These points - around comprehensively meeting need; providing range and choice; and delivering improvement and diversification in housing provision -are important and must influence the policies of the BCP. Paragraph 1.43, and elsewhere highlights key challenges to deliver provision of good quality housing to meet the needs of a growing population and accommodating significant housing and employment needs. It acknowledges that to meet those needs there is a requirement to assess and review the
Green Belt and identify areas for growth in the context of a deficit in the supply of brownfield land. Exceptional circumstances clearly exist in this context such that it is essential that Green Belt land is released for development as there is simply not enough brownfield land which suitable, available and deliverable to meet development needs.

Policy CSP1 -- Development Strategy should be explicit in recognising the need for the release of Green Belt land. Reference is made to, "delivering the majority of development in the existing urban area", and whilst that remains relevant, the BCP must also acknowledge that a change in strategic direction away from the BCCS is necessary and this will include the delivery of development in other areas including Green Belt. This is implicit in the reference to growth in locations on the edge of the Urban Area, but the only explicit mention of the Green Belt in Policy CSPl refers to its protection.

Equally, the BCP very clearly relies on exporting a significant amount of its development requirement -some 28,239 new homes, and 210ha of employment land - to other authorities through the Duty to Co-operate. Whilst we comment on this further in our
planningprospects
planning and development consultancy


representations elsewhere below, exporting development need must be reflected and made absolutely explicit in the Development Strategy.

A Development Strategy that relies on Green Belt release to help meet development needs must refer and commit to that release, and Policy CSPl is not explicit in that regard, neither is it explicit in the strategy approach which is exporting very substantial development needs (equivalent to some 37% of the overall requirement) to other areas and must be explicit on this point.

In summary;


• It is important that the plan meets the full needs for development in the area
• A revised Development Strategy is supported which recognises the failings in the approach of the previous BCCS and a more balanced provision of sites to support delivery is essential
• Exceptional Circumstances are clearly evident given the lack of supply of sites from other sources to meet development needs
• The Development Strategy should be explicit in recognising that Green Belt will be required to be released to meet needs
• Further it should be explicit in recognising that a component of need will not be accommodated within the Black Country and will need to be delivered across boundaries

Policy HOU1 - Development Strategy


As drafted the BCP raises some very serious concerns over its inability to meet the minimum housing needs of the Black Country over the Plan period, and by some considerable margin. The Plan does not properly address the scale of unmet need it has identified and relies too heavily on neighbouring authorities to deliver its unmet needs. In doing so it fails to address in any tangible way how the homes needed in the Black Country during the BCP period can ever be delivered and fails to meet the tests of soundness set out in the Framework.

Even those sites that are relied upon in the draft BCP, as set out in its Table 3, are unlikely to deliver even the 47,837 net new homes it anticipates over the Plan period, such that the
true extent of unmet need within the BCA areas is likely to be significantly greater than the already substantial 28,239 homes it acknowledges.

In this respect, Paragraph 61 points directly to the "positively prepared" test of soundness (in particular) as set out at Paragraph 35 of the Framework. Plans are "positively prepared" if they provide a strategy which "as a minimum, seeks to meet the area's objectively
assessed needs1; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development" (our emphasis underlined).




1 Footnote 21 of the Framework sets out that "where this relates to housing, such needs should be assessed using a clear and justified method, as set out in paragraph 61 of this Framework".


2
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planning and development consultancy


Policy HOUl of the draft BCP sets out that sufficient land will be provided to deliver at least
47,837 net new homes over the period 2020 - 2039. In its justification to Policy HOUl the draft BCP sets out that this will deliver a 10% increase in housing stock but confirms that will accommodate only 63% of current Local Housing Need up to 2039 within the Black Country, noting the Local Housing Need (LHN), or the minimum number of homes needed, in the Black Country over the BCP plan period is 76,076 homes when calculated following the
PPG's Standard Method2• The draft BCP (paragraph 3.21 for example) recognises that this amounts to a shortfall of 28,239 homes, or in other words 37% of the minimum number of homes needed in the Black Country will not be delivered by the Black Country Authorities
{BCA) between 2020 and 2039.


The BCP sets out that the BCA are asking their neighbouring authorities to work with them to meet this substantial shortfall under the "Duty to Cooperate" {DTC). The draft BCP refers to the current position being set out in the Draft Plan Statement of Consultation which will be elaborated on at Publication stage.

The Statement of Consultation sets out that those neighbouring authorities being relied on by the BCA include South Staffordshire, Lichfield, Cannock Chase, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin and indicates that currently there have been offers from those authorities amounting to between 8,000 and 9,500 homes. This approach will not, by some margin, deliver the minimum number of homes currently needed in the Black Country over the BCP period. There is no explanation in the plan as to how the sizeable shortfall, or the homes that are needed in the Black Country over the BCP period, will be made up merely that "the engagement will extend beyond the adoption of this plan and will build on the partnership approach developed across the Greater Birmingham and Black Country Housing Market Area to address the combined housing shortfalls of the Birmingham and Black Country Authorities in particular". In essence, the draft BCP appears to be suggesting that its very significant unmet housing need will be dealt with at some point in the future as part of an already significant regional scale strategic challenge, without any clear or specific indication
of exactly how that will be achieved, or what guarantees or fallback mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that the Black Country's housing needs will be met.

This approach has not been successful in the Region previously as the West Midlands has struggled to meet the unmet needs of Birmingham for a number of years, following the adoption of the Birmingham Development Plan {2011 to 2031) in January 2017 with its stated housing shortfall of circa 37,900 homes. Indeed, the Black Country Authorities are relying on some of the same authorities that Birmingham City Council was relying upon to meet their unmet need including South Staffordshire and Lichfield for example. This unmet need is only likely to increase post 2031 as Birmingham grapples with an increased requirement for housing under the new Standard Methodology, a period commensurate with the latter part of the BCP period.

In essence the BCP need to;






2 Calculated in the Black Country Housing Market Assessment: Final Report (March 2021)


3
planningprospects
planning and development consultancy


• More clearly address its inability to meet the minimum identified housing needs of the BCA over the Plan period

• Reconsider its over reliance on neighbouring GBBCHMA authorities to address its needs.

The net plan requirement is exacerbated even by a cursory review of the component sources of housing land supply, not least the following;

Increasing Housing Density- whilst some additional supply will be achieved through increasing density, this must be balanced with market demands. Whilst some sites could achieve a slightly higher density where market evidence supports this and still makes the site deliverable, it will not be suitable for all sites. Even then, increasing development densities on existing BCCS allocation sites will result in minimal increases to the Black Country's housing supply over the Plan period.

Converting Employment Land to Residential Use - It is clear that there are numerous challenges associated with bringing housing development forward on employment sites and a number of those relied upon in the BCCS have been removed as they are not suitable or developable for housing. Despite this, Table 3 nonetheless indicates that 3,091 homes (6.5% of the total anticipated supply) are still anticipated from occupied employment sites, even with the 15% discount - raising questions as to whether these sites in the anticipated housing supply are truly suitable or developable for residential use and also why these sites are being lost for employment use when the BCA have such a significant shortfall in employment land supply and cannot meet their identified employment needs to the tune of
211 ha of land.


Windfall - The draft BCP's anticipated supply also includes a sizeable windfall allowance of
8,463 homes (or 17.3% of the total anticipated supply). The Policy justification sets out that this allowance is robust as it "reflects historic completion rates for sites of less than ten homes". Paragraph 71 of the Framework says Local Planning Authorities may make an allowance for windfall sites if they have compelling evidence that such sites will provide a reliable source of supply and any allowance should be realistic having regard to the strategic housing land availability assessment, historic windfall delivery rates and expected future trends (our emphasis underlined). The BCA's reliance on historic completion rates only suggests that its windfall allowance is not supported by compelling evidence that such sites will continue to provide a reliable source of supply as required by the Framework.

Demolitions - The total net housing supply identified in Table 3 (amounting to the 47,837 net new homes referenced in Policy HOU1) is derived from a gross figure of 48,908 homes and deducting 323 homes from "Dudley Estimated Housing Renewal Demolitions" and 748 homes from "Small-scale demolition windfalls". The Urban Capacity Review Update (May
2021), however, sets out that Dudley's 10 Year Asset Management Strategy (October 2018) identified around 2,500 homes (some 12% of the Council's stock) considered not viable and red-flagged for review for strategic investment, de-investment or demolition.