The Strategic Planning Officer presented a report, the purpose of which, was to update the Development Control Committee on the findings of the 2022 AMR (attached at Appendix 1 to the report) and more notably, that housing delivery is failing to keep pace with the housing requirement and new deliverable housing allocations are urgently needed to relieve growing housing supply pressure.

He explained that the Council has a statutory obligation under Section 61 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, to keep all matters under review that are expected to affect the development of its area. In addition, Section 76 of the Act required the Local Planning Authority to produce information on these matters in the form of an AMR, for submission to the Welsh Government.

He further advised that the 2022 AMR must be submitted to the Welsh Government prior to the 31 October 2022.

The main aim of the AMR was to assess the extent to which the LDP Strategy and Policies are being achieved. Therefore, the AMR has two primary roles, firstly, to consider whether the policies identified in the monitoring process are being implemented successfully and secondly to consider the Plan as a whole against all of the information gathered, in order to determine whether a complete or partial review of the Plan is necessary.

The Strategic Planning Officer went on to say, that there had been many changes since 2013 that had influenced the successful

implementation of the LDP. The AMR therefore considered whether the development strategy that underpins the LDP remains valid and assesses whether or not the Strategy Policies contained within this are being effective in delivering the Development Strategy and meeting the objectives of the plan.

The findings of the AMR also provided an important opportunity for the Council to assess the effectiveness of the adopted LDP and to determine whether or not it needs to be reviewed. The previously published LDP Review Report (2018) already recognised an urgent need to address the shortfall in the housing land supply through the identification of additional housing sites.

The development that had taken place since adoption of the existing LDP has levied significant investment into the County Borough and delivered new homes and jobs for BCBC’s communities. However, a number of key housing provision policy targets are not being met which indicated that these policies are not functioning as intended. The longer this situation remains unaddressed he added, the greater the need will be to include extra housing provision within the Replacement LDP or risk ad hoc development and ‘planning by appeal’.

This further reinforced the need for a plan review, as the annual housing requirement will not pause for housing delivery to catch up.

The Strategic Planning Officer confirmed that the Local Planning Authority is continuing to progress the Replacement LDP to address the shortfall in housing delivery and facilitate the identification/allocation of additional housing land.

He concluded his report, by stating that further investment into the local economy is required and the Replacement LDP will stimulate take up of new employment land, mixed-use sites and regeneration opportunities (including sites in the Council’s ownership). This will bring forward new schemes, masterplans and development briefs to enable development.

RESOLVED:                                     That Members noted the content of the   report of the Corporate Director – Communities.