WESTBURY town councillors will again make their frustration heard over Wiltshire Council’s inability to create a five-year housing land supply and the consequences for house building in Westbury.
Town councillors agreed to write to Wiltshire Council earlier in the year to say that it was “vital” that the unitary authority works to identify the remaining land supply. In response, Wiltshire Council have said that they are not the only council who does not have a five-year housing land supply and that they are working hard to make sure the supply figure is as high as possible.
Wiltshire Council is required to identify sites for housing developments, and government policy requires them to find a minimum of five years’ supply to ensure housing targets are met. The consequence of not having a five- year housing land supply is that councils may start to lose control over where new homes are built – this was apparent in Westbury recently when the Sandhole Lane site was granted planning permission on appeal, despite strong opposition from the town council and refusal from Wiltshire Council.
The issue of not having a five-year housing land supply was discussed at a meeting of the highways, planning, and development committee of the town council, with cllr Gordon King suggesting they should write again to Wiltshire Council, following the response they received.
Cllr King said, “In the letter, the head of spatial planning at Wiltshire Council says that, “a shortfall in supply is not an automatic approval for speculative site proposals” – I would suggest we write back to them and ask that between the times of A and B, how many applications have been turned down or allowed due to the five-year land supply and secondly, in the same period, how many of these proposals were allowed or turned down at appeal?”
The letter from Wiltshire Council reads, “Wiltshire Council is not alone in not having a 5-year housing land supply and many authorities across the country find themselves in the same position. Unfortunately, while we can plan ahead with a view to maintaining a five-year land supply, there are factors out of our control that can affect how quickly sites are brought forward and therefore what we can reasonably count within the five-year period being assessed.
“This is largely due to the fact that the actual delivery of homes generally falls to the private sector and market conditions, and we are reliant on developers bringing forward land and submitting planning applications at the right time. A shortfall in supply is not an automatic approval for speculative site proposals and each application needs to be assessed carefully.
“We do work hard to make sure the council’s five-year housing land supply figure is as high as possible by working to bring forward sites and by approving planning applications for homes in the right location. Restoring the five-year housing land supply though these actions, as well as supporting communities to bring forward new sites for housing in their neighbourhood plans, will help prevent speculative developments.”
