Five year housing land supply will deter speculative builders, says council

SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL has published its latest figures showing that it can demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, which it claims should deter speculative planning applications from developers.

If a local planning authority cannot show that it has a five-year housing land supply, its policies with regards to residential development will be regarded as out-of-date. Where this happens, the NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) sets out a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’.

Cllr Felix Bloomfield, South Oxfordshire District Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning, said: “It is good news for South Oxfordshire that we can currently demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. This will help us to fight speculative development on sites which are not the most suitable or preferred, whilst continuing to deliver on housing growth.”

Under government planning rules set out in the (NPPF), all local planning authorities should have an up-to-date deliverable five-year housing land supply. The council’s Housing Land Supply Statement for 2017-18, published today, shows that it has a 5.4-year supply.

To determine this figure, the council monitors planning permissions, carries out site surveys to check progress on house-building and works with housebuilders to understand how many houses have been built and how many are likely to be built in the next five years.

Its latest housing completion survey shows that in South Oxfordshire 967 homes were built and finished in 2017/18, a third more than the previous year’s figure of 722, when the council was unable to demonstrate a five-year supply.

Cllr Felix Bloomfield continued: “While this is not a significant over-supply and there are outside forces that can affect supply, we are working hard to ensure that this can be sustained moving forward. We are in the final stages of preparing our Local Plan for independent examination and this sets out how South Oxfordshire will grow over the coming decades in a planned, phased way.”

The Housing Land Supply Statement can be viewed HERE