Housing Land Supply Changes: What They Mean for Planning
On 1st July, a change which was announced eighteen months ago took effect. Local planning authorities whose plans are pinned to outdated housing figures must now demonstrate a six-year land supply rather than five.
If a council’s adopted or emerging Local Plan sets a housing requirement at 80% or less of the government’s standard method figure, it now has to add a 20% buffer to its five-year land supply. So a five-year test becomes a six-year test.
Within the southwest, a number of Councils fall into this category. This includes Cornwall Council. Although the Council hasn’t updated its published housing land supply position in response to this change, we have calculated that their housing land supply has reduced from 3.9 years to approximately 3.4 years.
If there were the expected low number of completions in the County over the last year – this will reduce even further, with an increasing gap between supply and housing need.
This has many positives for gaining planning consent for new housing as locations which weren’t previously acceptable will now be more likely to gain consent. There’s now a real window of opportunity.
If you want to take advantage of this opportunity, please contact us for a no obligation chat.
Truro: 01872 225 259
Exeter: 01392 979 135
Email: hello@laurenceassociates.co.uk
