Yet another study into housing needs!

FOLLOWING an allocation of 775 new homes for Thame, already allocated for in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, and now mostly all built, and then the SHMAR report (a county-wide Strategic Housing Market Assessment) which suggested Thame would need to build even more new homes by the early 2030s, now comes another proposal for calculating housing need, this time from the government.

In a statement, South Oxfordshire District Council has stated: “The government is currently consulting on a number of changes to planning policy and legislation, which includes a proposed approach to calculating housing need. Until any government guidelines are finalised and published, SODC is required to work on the existing housing needs figures. It will also need to consider economic growth, affordable housing and the need for new infrastructure.

“We will work to ensure the inspector considering our Local Plan will take any changes to guidance into account during the examination process,” concluded the council.

When will the Draft Local Plan be published?

In the meantime, residents can have their say about South Oxfordshire’s Final Draft Local Plan which will set out how the district should be shaped until 2033. This will be published on October 11.

Between that date and November 22, residents can have a say before the plan is submitted to the government for consideration by a planning inspector.

HOW and WHERE the homes will be delivered

Oh yes, and then there’s the joint draft housing delivery strategy to have a say about too! Land owners and developers have been submitting potential sites to a register for consideration for development. The list of dozens of sites in Thame already submitted, can be seen HERE  Or check out the interactive map HERE

SODC have said that feedback from previous public consultations has been taken into consideration and has helped to shape the Local Plan through the various stages to this point.

They have also pointed out: “It is important to note that the planning inspector will be giving more weight to comments on the technical soundness of the plan – this means the comments need to relate to the legality of the plan. From October 11, look out for a factsheet and a short video on SODC’s website to help explains what this means.

Public meetings

Public meetings are planned throughout the district for residents to find out more and submit comments. The meeting in Thame will be held at the Town Hall on November 13, between 3 – 7 pm. But, anyone unable to attend one of these events, can view the final draft of the Local Plan and submit comments via the council website.

It is expected that for the final plan will be submitted to government by the end of 2017, and expect a public examination of the plan, including comments and evidence gathered, to take place early next year.