Minutes:
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 2019/20 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 1 April 2020, and is supported by an online map portal showing the status of all existing housing monitor sites.
2.0 Recommendation
2.1 The Committee is asked to note the outcomes of the annual Housing Monitor report for 2019/20 contained at Appendix 1 (available on mod.gov) and the intention to publish this summary document and accompanying online map portal on the Council’s website.
3.0 Main Report
Background
3.1 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.
Housing Land Availability Reports
3.2 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 (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 consents. This provides a snapshot of the amount of land available for new homes and capacity for future housing units as of 1st April 2020, as well as providing detail in respect of the net gains in residential units for the 2019/20 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. The report will be supported by the online map portal showing the status of all existing housing monitor sites, on the Development Plan and Policy part of the Council website.
3.4 During the 2019/20 monitoring year 698 units were completed on 18.5ha of land across the District. 378.4ha of land remains, with potential capacity for 21,692 residential units. This is based on deliverable planning approvals and land allocated within the development plan, but doesn’t include other potential sites that may be suitable for residential development.
3.5 The total number of dwellings completed in the district has fallen by 15.9% from 830 in 2018/19 to 698 in the current monitor year. The proportion of dwellings completed within the Urban Footprint is recorded at 76.4% and, as at 1 April 2020, 38.7% 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 policy designations and planning permissions, rather than an accurate picture of all potentially viable housing land. It should also be noted that this year’s report is based on data for the period largely prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, so the full implications of Coronavirus will not be reflected until next year’s report.
3.7 Finance and Resource Implications
There are no resource implications associated with this report.
3.8 Asset and Other Implications
None noted.
3.9 Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment
The Housing Monitor report presents factual information and makes no recommendations relating to the future allocation of land for housing. There are therefore no relevant equality or good relations implications attached to this report.”
The Committee adopted the recommendations.