The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Bush and Fowler (with no substitutions).

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting of the Committee, held on Tuesday 23 July 2024.

It was moved by Councillor Bray, seconded by Councillor M Cossens and:-

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Tuesday 23 July 2024, be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests of Non-Registerable Interests, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

In relation to agenda item 6, report A.1 (Local Plan Review: Implications of the Government’s proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and introduction of Mandatory Housebuilding Targets, Councillor Fairley declared that she could be considered to have a Non-Registerable Interest insofar as family members owned land at Horsley Cross which was part of the A120 corridor. Having taken advice from the Monitoring Officer, Councillor Fairley stated that she would remain in the meeting and take part in the consideration of that item.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed to the meeting that she had given advice to Councillor Fairley and confirmed the substance of Councillor Fairley’s declaration.

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

No questions on notice pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 38 had been submitted on this occasion.

The Council’s Public Speaking Scheme for the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee gives the opportunity for members of the public and other interested parties/stakeholders to speak to the Committee on any specific report to be considered at that public meeting.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Council’s public speaking scheme for the Planning Policy & Local Plan Committee, no member of the public had registered to ask at this meeting a question or to make a statement on the two Officer reports.

To report to the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee the main implications of the new Government’s proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including the introduction of mandatory housebuilding targets, on the current review of the Tendring District Local Plan; and to agree with the Committee the postponement of public consultation on Issues & Options pending the outcome of the Government’s current NPPF consultation.

Earlier on in the meeting, as recorded under Minute 57 above, and in relation to this item, Councillor Fairley had declared that she could be considered to have a Non-Registerable Interest insofar as family members owned land at Horsley Cross which was part of the A120 corridor. Having taken advice from the Monitoring Officer, Councillor Fairley had stated that she would remain in the meeting and take part in the consideration of this item.

The Committee considered a report of the Director (Planning) (A.1), which set out the main implications of the new Government’s proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including the introduction of mandatory housebuilding targets, on the current review of the Tendring District Local Plan. The report also sought the Committee’s agreement for the postponement of public consultation on the Issues & Options document pending the outcome of the Government’s current NPPF consultation.

Members were aware that, up until now, the Council had been preparing to carry out the five-year review of its Local Plan following a work programme and a set of overarching guiding principles, vision, objectives and spatial strategy options that had been agreed by the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee in its meetings from December 2023 through to July 2024 – with the intention of carrying out public consultation on the agreed Issues & Options document in September/October 2024.

However, the UK General Election on 4 July 2024 had resulted in a change of Government and on 30 July 2024 the new Deputy Prime Minister had launched an eight-week consultation on reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – the policies within which Councils were expected to follow both for the purposes of Local Plan preparation and planning decisions – and other changes to the planning system. The detail of that NPPF consultation and the Council’s possible response were the subject of a separate report on the Committee’s agenda.

The Committee was informed that the most significant of the Government’s proposed changes was the introduction of mandatory (as opposed to advisory) housebuilding targets generated using a revised version of the ‘standard method’ for calculating local housing need. If the new Government pushed ahead with its proposed changes, Tendring’s housebuilding target would increase from 550 homes a year from the current Local Plan to 1,043 homes a year from 2026. This would have significant implications for this District, the review of the Tendring Local Plan, and all the work that had been carried out by the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee and the Council’s Officers to date.

The main implications were summarised as follows:-

Housebuilding requirements:

An increase in the annual housing requirement from 550 to 1,043 homes a year was substantially above the increase to 770 that had been anticipated and reported previously. This increase would require the Council to plan for 7,000-8,000 additional homes up to 2041 over and above the 9,600 already in the pipeline (expected on sites allocated in the current Local Plan, sites already under construction,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

To invite discussion and seek agreement from the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee to Tendring District Council’s formal response to the Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system.

The Committee considered a report of the Director (Planning) (A.2) which invited discussion and its agreement to Tendring District Council’s formal response to the Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system.

Those changes were the subject of a public consultation, running for eight weeks from 30th July – 24th September 2024. The consultation material consisted of 15 chapters of explanatory text outlining the proposed changes, and 106 focussed questions about the proposals. The full consultation document was included at Appendix 1 to the report (A.2), with the Officers’ suggested response to each question included in bold text for easy identification and for Members’ consideration.

The key concerns and ideas that Officers had raised throughout the suggested response included:-

•    The imposition of top-down housebuilding targets on a mandatory basis with no scope for local circumstances, constraints or exceptional circumstances to be taken into account;

•    The significant practical implications of reintroducing the requirement to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply at the same time as dramatically increasing housing targets, which created a ‘cliff-edge’ scenario for the Council come January 2026 and looked realistically unachievable;

•    The need for Government to provide financial support to Local Authorities to deliver the required infrastructure to facilitate housing development of the scale proposed;

•    The need for financial support to deliver a greater amount of affordable and social housing as part of such a step-change in overall housing delivery; and

•    The importance of retaining local control of large-scale infrastructure projects, rather than expanding the NSIP regime.

Members were informed that many of the questions in the consultation related to ‘Green Belt’ policy, which was of no direct relevance to the District of Tendring, and it was suggested that no comments be offered in response to those matters.

The Committee commented on the following aspects of the Government’s consultation and the Council’s proposed response thereto:-

(1)    Ensuring that retired residents could remain close to their friends if they chose to “downsize”;

(2)    Acknowledge that TDC is in the hands of others when it comes to highways and other infrastructure and that TDC should stress that in its response;

(3)    Pressing the Government further to allow Councils to build their own homes in order to deliver more housing for social rent;

(4)    Request mandatory planning requirement for new housing to provide facilities for recycling water e.g. through rainwater collection;

(5)    Request higher statutory fees for retrospective planning applications; and

(6)    Press for a ‘New House Levy’ to provide funds for Councils to provide the recycling facilities for those households.

The Chairman requested that the District’s two Members of Parliament be briefed on this important matter and that they be urged to ‘lobby’ the Government on behalf of the residents of the District.

At the invitation of the Chairman, the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning (Councillor Baker) commented on the subject matter of this item.

Having duly taken all of the above information into  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.