Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity to submit a report outlining the Leicester and Leicestershire Statement of Common Ground on Housing and Employment Need.

Cabinet

(1)  APPROVED the signing of the Leicester & Leicestershire Statement of Common Ground relating to Housing and Employment Land Needs, June 2022.

Sarah Legge, Local Plans Manager introduced the report, the purpose of which was to outline the Leicester and Leicestershire Statement of Common Ground on Housing and Employment Need.

Mrs Legge advised that Leicester City Council’s unmet need for both housing and employment land had recently been quantified at approximately 18,700 homes and 23 hectares of employment land (up to 2036).  The Council had signed a Statement of Common Ground with the other authorities in June 2021, which set out the process for apportioning those unmet needs etc.  The Council was proactive in preparation of its local plan, in acknowledging that Leicester City's unmet need would need to be dealt with in the coming years.  The evidence demonstrated that the Council needed to deliver a further 69 dwellings per annum, towards unmet need up to 2036 and was confident that the current housing land supply trajectory could deliver this within existing housing allocations.

Mrs Legge confirmed that the Council was not being asked to accommodate any of the unmet employment need.  However, the Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (HENA) confirmed that the Council needed to find a further 10 hectares of employment land to meet its own needs up to 2036.  It was important that the Council signed the Statement of Common Ground to allow the progression of all local plan work across Leicester and Leicestershire and to ensure that planned development continued across the housing market area.

The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity Councillor Rob Bindloss commented that this proposal highlighted that the Council was progressive and forward thinking.  It was important that the Council signed the Statement of Common Ground to allow progression of local plan work across Leicestershire authorities and to ensure that the planned development across the housing market in Melton progressed.

Cabinet

(1)  APPROVED the signing of the Leicester & Leicestershire Statement of Common Ground relating to Housing and Employment Land Needs, June 2022.

Reason for Recommendations:

As part of the Local Plan process, local planning authorities must demonstrate that they have met the statutory Duty to Cooperate (DtC) on strategic matters, which can include housing and employment growth. Statements of Common Ground (SoCG) are tools which local planning authorities can use to demonstrate that the Duty to Cooperate has been met. The local planning authorities across Leicester and Leicestershire are currently progressing plans which are all at different stages of development.

It is considered that on the evidence to date, Melton Borough Council is expected to contribute 69 dwellings per annum towards Leicester City’s unmet need to 2036. At the time of writing, this can be accommodated within the existing Melton Local Plan (2011-2036) allocations within the headroom that was built into the Plan for housing delivery.

The evidence presented in the HENA June 2022 (Background Paper A), indicates that Melton will need to provide an additional 10ha of employment land beyond that already allocated in the adopted Melton Local Plan to 2036. Work undertaken in the last couple of years by planning and regeneration teams has demonstrated that Melton can accommodate this within the Manufacturing Zones (MAZ) already promoted. Most MAZ land is not formally allocated within the Local Plan, and a call for employment sites will be required as part of the Local Plan Review in order for us to formally consider where to allocate employment land. However, it is not considered at this time that Melton Borough Council is in the position to declare its own unmet needs for employment land.

The evidence base documents appended to this report (Background Papers A-D) represent a robust, evidence based approach to quantifying the housing and employment need across Leicestershire, and the redistribution of those needs across L&L.