Agenda item

Purpose Buildt managed Student Accommodation (PBMSA)       The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

1.1       To provide an overview of the Council’s Housing Land Availability Summary Report for the 2017/18 monitoring period.

1.2       The report presents the outcomes of annual housing land monitoring and helps inform the preparation of the new Local Development Plan (LDP) for the District. It provides a snapshot of the amount of land available for new residential development as of 01 April 2018, and will be supported by an online map portal showing the status of all existing housing monitor sites. The map portal will also spatially reflect key information contained within the tables of the report.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       Note the outcomes of the annual Housing Monitor report for 2017/18 contained at Appendix 1 and the intention to publish this summary document and accompanying online map portal on the Council’s website.

3.0       Main report

3.1       Background

            Members are reminded that the Planning Act (NI) 2011 requires the Council to make an annual report to the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) outlining the extent to which the objectives set out in the LDP are being achieved. As the Council are currently preparing the first new LDP for Belfast under this new legislation, the production of Annual Monitoring Reports has not yet commenced.  Instead, annual Housing Land Availability Monitor reports (referred to as the ‘Housing Monitor’ reports) are being prepared by the Council until the new LDP is adopted.

3.2       Housing Land Availability Reports

            The primary purpose of the Housing Monitor is to inform the formulation of the Council’s new LDP. However, it will also help the Council identify where a shortfall in potential land supply might exist and can inform house-builders on the availability of land that may be suitable for housing.

3.3       The Housing Land Availability Summary Report contained at Appendix 1 presents the headline figures from a register of potential housing land maintained by the Council, based on current planning policy designations and planning permissions. This provides a snapshot of the amount of land available for new homes and capacity for future housing units as of 1st April 2018, as well as providing the net gains in housing units for the 2017/18 period.  This differs from the new dwelling completion statistics published routinely by central Government which only provide a total for new build homes, without accounting for units lost as a result of redevelopment.

3.4       This information is summarised within the report in relation to:

·      Each settlement within the District, including settlement areas in the case of Belfast City;

·      Whether land falls within the existing urban footprint (the continuous built-up area of the settlement) or is classified as greenfield land; and

·      The type of land use zoning (i.e. land zoned for housing or land zoned for mixed use development) or all other land.

3.5       During the 2017/18 monitoring year 659 units were completed on 19.4 ha of land across the District. 408.9 ha of land remains, with potential capacity for 22,354 residential units.  The total number of dwellings completed in the district has fallen by 7.7% from 714 in 2016/17 to 659 in the current monitor year. The proportion of dwellings completed within the Urban Footprint is recorded at 82.1% and, as at 1 April 2018, almost 40% of the remaining potential available for future dwellings is on land zoned for housing or mixed use development. 

3.6       It is emphasised that the monitor represents a register of housing land based on current policy designations and planning permissions, rather than an accurate picture of viable housing land. It is the role of an Urban Capacity Study to assess the suitability, availability and achievability of land, alongside the identification of new sites that could be later zoned for residential use as part of the LDP process. As an Urban Capacity Study was completed in March 2018, this report also contains a summary of its findings, focussing on new sites identified that are not included within the housing monitor.

            Online Map Portal

3.7       It is intended that the Housing Monitor report will be published alongside an online map portal showing the status of the existing housing monitor sites and key information contained within the tables of this report, for example: the site area developed and the remaining area potential; and the number of dwelling units complete and the remaining unit potential.

            Recommendations

3.8       Members are asked to note the outcomes of the annual Housing Monitor report for 2017/18 contained at Appendix 1 and the intention to publish this summary document and accompanying online map portal on the Council’s website.

            Financial & Resource Implications

3.9       There are no financial or other resource implications arising from this report.

            Equality or Good Relations Implications

3.10     The Housing Monitor report presents factual information and makes no recommendations relating to the future allocation of land for housing.  There are therefore no equality or good relations implications arising from this report. “

            The Committee noted the contents of the report.