Archived decisions

Contact: Stuart Roberts, ext 6782 email: [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 On 31 March 2005 Council agreed a response to consultation by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) on the draft South East Plan. On 13 and 23 June 2005 SEERA's Regional Planning Committee received a report on all the comments received on the draft Plan, and formulated recommendations to the Assembly's Plenary Meeting on 13 July on how the draft Plan should be revised in the light of those comments and the latest technical analysis. The recommendations include regional, county and sub-regional housebuilding totals and changes to the region-wide policies covering all topics. The Regional Planning Committee is recommending the Assembly plenary meeting to submit the above material to the Deputy Prime Minister this summer.

1.2 The Assembly has requested the Principal Authorities, working closely with the district councils, to provide to the Assembly, by 9 December 2005, housebuilding figures for individual Districts, together with advice on employment and critical infrastructure, after having undertaken a minimum six week public consultation on the draft district housing figures. This is a change from the Assembly's original intention to conduct the public consultation itself. The Assembly intends to submit this material to the Deputy Prime Minister in spring 2006.

1.3 This report describes the process for formulating the draft district-level housing figures, puts forward the figures which are proposed for public consultation and proposes how that consultation should be conducted.

2. Regional and Sub-Regional Housing Totals

2.1 The Assembly Plenary Meeting on 13 July 2005 decided that a target of 28,900 new houses per annum from 2006-2026 across the South East Region as a whole would be included in the Plan to be submitted to Government. This is similar to the current Regional Planning Guidance (RPG) after taking account of development at the Growth Areas (Milton Keynes; Ashford; Thames Gateway) announced subsequent to the RPG.

2.2 The Plenary Meeting also endorsed totals for each county and for each sub-region. The recommended figure for Hampshire (including Portsmouth and Southampton) is 6,100 per annum - almost the same as the current RPG figure of 6,030 per annum. This is distributed as follows:

(i) South Hampshire - 4,000 new homes per annum;

(ii) Central Hampshire and New Forest - 800 new homes per annum; and

(iii) North Hampshire - 1,300 new homes per annum.

2.3 There will be an opportunity for the public and organisations to comment again on these figures when the Government consults next year, on the Plan submitted by the Regional Assembly.

3. Formulating District Figures

3.1 The Assembly's brief to the Principal Authorities requires the formulation of a set of housing figures for the District Council areas which sum to the totals above. This work is moving forward under the guidance of Member steering groups in each area, on which all local authorities are represented.

3.2 The Principal Authorities are required to submit the district-level house building targets to the Regional Assembly by 9 December 2005, having undertaken a minimum six week public consultation on them. This overall timetable is tight and necessitates the public consultation taking place from late August/early September until mid October. This in turn requires the Councils to approve the draft figures by the end of July, in order to allow time for finalisation and printing of the consultation document, etc.

3.3 The Central Hampshire and New Forest Steering Group met on 11 July and agreed the figures set out in the appendix, as a basis for consultation, with no preferred option to be specified. The programme for the other Steering Groups to agree a set of district-level housing targets for public consultation is as follows:

· South Hampshire (PUSH Leaders meeting) 19 July

· Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley 25 July

(which includes North Hampshire)

3.4 The figures on which it is proposed to consult are set out in the attached appendix.

4. Consultation Arrangements

4.1 Although the formulation of district-level housing targets is proceeding on a sub-regional basis, the South East Counties Leaders propose, for pragmatic reasons of public understanding, that the consultation be conducted on a county rather than a sub-regional basis. This is assisted by the Regional Planning Committee's recommendation to the Assembly plenary meeting, of housing totals for counties as well as sub-regions.

4.2 The concept of a single, Hampshire-wide consultation, rather than separate, individual sub-regional based ones, has been endorsed by the Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley Members' Steering Group and by Chief Executives of the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) authorities, provided there is a clear and separate explanation for each sub-area.

4.3 This approach would mean the publication of a single consultation document covering the whole of Hampshire (including Portsmouth and Southampton) but with a self-contained and separate section for each of the three sub-areas, in order to clearly explain the origin and rationale for the figures and the particular circumstances and strategy approach in each area. The consultation document would be sent to statutory consultees, all parish and town councils and the other 1,000 or so organisations and individuals who have asked to be kept informed. Copies would also be made freely available through public libraries and information centres. (It is not intended to deliver the document door-to-door to every household; it is proposed to achieve that coverage within Hampshire through a special edition of `Hampshire Now' - see below).

4.4 The consultation document needs to set out alternative housing distributions, with each set summing to the overall control total for each sub-area. The formulation of alternative distributions of the same overall total is necessary to enable a Sustainability Appraisal to be properly conducted; it will also create a more 'open' consultation by offering consultees a choice.

4.5 The Steering Groups (and the County Council) will need to decide whether or not they wish to indicate a preferred option and if so, which one.

4.6 Statute, and the Assembly's brief, places the responsibility on the Principal Authorities to formulate the district-level housing figures and conduct the public consultation on them. In South Hampshire the Principal Authorities are the County Council, Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council, although the authorities have previously committed to working together with all the other local planning authorities, through PUSH. For the other two sub-areas of Hampshire, the County Council is the only Principal Authority, although again it is working collaboratively with the local planning authorities in each area. On this basis, 'ownership' of the consultation document and the proposals therein would rest with the County Council and with PUSH (for South Hampshire).

4.7 The District Councils in central and north Hampshire have been offered the opportunity to publicly associate themselves with the proposals at this stage through their logo appearing on the cover. However as most will be responding as consultees this is not likely.

5. Consultation Techniques

5.1 The following 'core activities' are proposed in addition to publication of the consultation document:

(i) seminars for particular sectors, eg businesses, town and parish councils;

(ii) compilation of a short questionnaire to provide an opportunity for a wide cross-section of the public to submit views;

(iii) press releases;

(iv) information on Hantsweb; and

(v) a special edition of 'Hampshire Now'.

5.2 District councils and other organisations may wish to supplement these core activities with their own events/initiatives, including meetings and articles in their equivalents of `Hampshire Now'.

5.3 The approach set out above has been discussed with planning officers and Chief Executives of the other Hampshire Authorities and received broad support. Some envisage that their authorities would indeed want to undertake complementary initiatives/events at a more local level, in order to encourage residents/organisations to respond to the consultation and to inform their own Council's decisions.

6. Financial Implications

6.1 The Regional Assembly only intends to play a supporting role in the consultation. It will provide contextual material for Principal Authorities to include in their consultation documents and will share the lessons learnt from the consultation earlier this year on the draft South East Plan. The Assembly will also issue general press releases and make information available on its web-site, but will redirect specific enquiries and comments to the Principal Authorities. However, the Assembly will provide some funds for the consultation: each unitary council across the South East will receive £3,000; and each County Council will receive £1,000 for every district within its area. This means £11,000 for Hampshire County Council and £17,000 for Hampshire including Portsmouth and Southampton. Any consultation initiatives in excess of these amounts, would have to be funded by the organising authority(ies). On this basis, the funding from the Regional Assembly will cover little more than the publication of the consultation document, with the other activities needing to be funded by the County Council at an estimated additional cost of £70,000.

Recommendations

1. That the District-level housing figures be endorsed for public consultation.

2. That the proposed approach to public consultation set out in this report be endorsed.

425/SR Rpt