Question:
In an email to me in June you stated that "we have recently published our Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) Strategic Housing Market Assessment which gives us our (OAN) objectively assessed need up to 2036 of 856 homes to be built per annum.
Can you please let me know when this was agreed by the Council as Officers have advised me that “this has been agreed by Council Members and Officers who were part of the SHMA Member Reference Group”as I cannot remember this ever being discussed at Council or Executive.
Minutes:
In an email to me in June you stated that "we have recently published our Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) Strategic Housing Market Assessment which gives us our (OAN) objectively assessed need up to 2036 of 856 homes to be built per annum.
Can you please let me know when this was agreed by the Council as Officers have advised me that “this has been agreed by Council Members and Officers who were part of the SHMA Member Reference Group” as I cannot remember this ever being discussed at Council or Executive.
Answer
Thank you for your question which is very interesting as the responsible Executive Member for the existing Core Strategy you already have a great understanding of the process to create a Local Plan, the new name for a Core Strategy. I was not personally involved in anything to do with the SHMA but I have carried out a lot of research to provide answers to your question.
As you know, the National Planning Policy Framework, the famous NPPF published in 2012 now requires all authorities to work out what their Objectively Assessed Housing Need (OAN) is, through the SHMA.
On 24 September 2015, the then Deputy Executive Member for Planning, Councillor Halsall took the LDS, that is the Local Development Scheme, report to Executive to gain approval for the Local Development Scheme. This included, amongst several other items, and I quote:
“It will therefore set a refined housing target for the Borough from 2013 to 2036, having regard to the results of an objective assessment of housing needs.”
At the same time the Executive Member for Planning, at that time Councillor Kaiser, became a member of the SHMA Member Reference Group, that you reference in your question, which was a pan Berkshire group of all the Planning Lead Members of each authority. All lead members accepted the output of the consultants on the OAN.
The consequence of that agreement was two press releases issued on 20 October, 2015. One was a joint release which every Berkshire Authority issued. All press releases are not issued without the express agreement of the relevant Executive Member. This is important as the second one was exclusively from Wokingham Borough Council which had extensive quotes from Councillor Kaiser reflecting his agreement to release these numbers. Amongst all these quotes was:
“The SHMA is a highly technical document that objectively produces a figure for housing need, which is broadly indicative of potential housing numbers we may need to provide for. But we will want to consult and engage as widely as possible when it comes to the Local Plan."
So that is the background. Councillor Halsall, the Deputy Executive Member for Planning, and Councillor Kaiser, Executive Member for Planning were the Councillors involved with the SHMA. It is correct that the SHMA did not go through the normal decision making process in exactly the same way that the equivalent in your Core Strategy did not.
So why not? Let me remind you as it is a long time since this process was followed for the Core Strategy, of the details. As Councillor Kaiser has said many times the OAN is a technical document. It is the opinion of consultants experienced in assessing housing needs for a council. Their opinion might not be correct and the methodology and assumptions can be questioned but it is a starting point.
However these numbers are not and I stress not, the Housing Target Number. The Housing Target Number is the number that gets “plugged into” the eventual Local Plan Update which will go forward to the public examination. So what is the difference? The Housing Target Number focuses around deliverability and generally results in a different number than the OAN. For example, if there are insufficient sustainable sites to reach the OAN number then your Housing Target Number will tend to be lower than the OAN. It does not mean the housing needs number is wrong simply they cannot be provided within the Borough. The Council will then look to their neighbours to see if they can assist in taking this shortfall. Excessive Green Belt land is another example for reducing the number of sustainable sites.
The Housing Target Number, which is the important one, will evolve over the next 12 months and that is the number which will go through the normal decision making process.
Supplementary Question
Councillor Derek Wilson, Cabinet Member for Planning at Windsor and Maidenhead said with respect to the SHMA “we are disappointed with the numbers for the Royal Borough because of the nature of the constraints in the Royal Borough and as a result we will need to have discussions with our neighbouring authorities as part of a duty to cooperate to take on potential housing.” I would add that the Strategic Housing Market Assessment identified Bracknell as needing 635 houses, West Berkshire 665, Reading 699 and finally Wokingham topped the list with 856 houses, which would be scheduled every year for the next 20 years. This number is regarded in the document as the starting figure.
Will you as Leader of the Council join me in publicly condemning these outrageous housing numbers allocated to Wokingham Borough here and now and will you also publicly please state your opposition to these housing numbers and that this administration will fight them every step of the way?
Supplementary Answer
Can I correct you; the Leader of the Royal Borough has confirmed that the numbers are adequate. Interesting enough they are roughly the same as their current numbers, so unfortunately your data is not quite correct.
I will not publicly condemn a consultant number. A consultant was paid to do the job. They have done a job and the number that we will be working to will be the Housing Needs Target. We do not know what that number is. When that number comes out I will take my position whether I support it or not.