Government U-turn on higher housing targets welcomed in Chichester district

A Government U-turn on massively increased housing targets for West Sussex has been welcomed in Chichester.

Chichester District Council adopted its local plan back in 2015. This sets out where housing development should take place and how much should be built each year.

This included an annual housing target of 435 homes a year for the part of the district not in the national park.

But under the government’s proposed planning reforms, consulted on earlier this year, Chichester’s housing requirement could have risen from 634 to 995 new homes a year, forcing the council to find and approve even more large-scale housing developments.

But ministers have had a rethink and decided to scrap the new way of calculating housing targets.

However the Chichester district still faces a larger housing requirement in the future.

Susan Taylor, CDC’s deputy leader and cabinet member for planning, said: “We really welcome the Government’s announcement and are so pleased that they have listened to our concerns on this matter.

“As part of our argument we highlighted the various constraints upon development that we are currently facing and asked them to withdraw their proposals to increase housing numbers within the Chichester local plan area.

“This outcome means that our housing need will remain as it was and instead, there will be more emphasis on delivering homes in larger cities across the country.

“A strong local planning system is an essential component of delivering sustainable development, community cohesion and a healthy environment. The right development, in the right place, has the potential to deliver social equity and sustainable economic growth, as well as meeting our environmental ambitions. The announcement made by the Government will enable this approach to continue.

“We now look forward to continuing to work with our communities to shape our local plan and neighbourhood plans, which will keep decision making locally.”

The Government U-turn follows a high-profile campaign in Parliament which Arundel and South Downs MP, Andrew Griffith, helped orchestrate.

He and others objected to the way fresh housing targets had been calculated coining the phrase ‘mutant algorithm’, leading to hugely inflated housing targets which did not take into account local factors such as geography and special characteristics.

Speaking last week, Mr Griffith said: “I am pleased that we have seen off this threat and to have spoken out passionately in Parliament for the residents of West Sussex.

“We faced a disproportionate amount of housing development had these plans gone ahead.

“Residents understand that we need new homes but numbers should reflect local need and be located where the infrastructure already exists or on brownfield sites not our precious green spaces.”

In November, Chichester Harbour Trust raised serious concerns about future development in the district, saying the Government’s ‘one size fits all’ proposal was taking the wrong approach.

The trust sent a robust response to the white paper expressing fear the proposals would bring about ‘irreversible decline to the fabric of our communities, landscape and biodiversity, primarily through the delivery of the artificially-high housing targets specified by the Standard Method algorithm’.

Following the news that a change to the algorithm had been prevented, John Nelson, chairman of the Chichester Harbour Trust, said: “This is very good news for Chichester and the Harbour AONB.

“It is the result of a huge amount of effort from a number of MPs, community and environmental bodies and the overwhelming support of the public.

“However, the Chichester Local Plan needs to be put on hold now and revised to reflect the new government planning priorities. If it isn’t, the permanent damage to the harbour, the community and the Chichester district will have been done before the new policies become effective.

“Surely, Chichester District Council will now make an application to Government? I call on our MP to support them.”

Louise Goldsmith, speaking as chairman of the SOSCA (Save Our South Coast Alliance), said: “Robert Jenrick’s announcement is to be welcomed.

“Andrew Griffith’s strong intervention reflecting the concerns of so many of his constituents and as well as of many outside was very much welcomed, and it is good to see that the issues he raised so determinedly have been heard and acted on by the Government.

“However, in Chichester we still need to know how many houses will be designated in the district in the light of this announcement. We continue to believe that any top down approach of central government setting housing numbers should stop and be devolved.

“Chichester is special – with only 30 per cent of land available for development, and inadequate sewage and road infrastructure, housing numbers must reflect the challenges of the area.

“Hopefully, there will be more good news when more detail is announced, but for now we applaud the work of MP Andrew Griffith.”