District council had issued a High Court challenge over HDT’s 50% score
Lewes district council is celebrating after a government u-turn meant the Sussex local authority had passed its Housing Delivery Test.
Figures originally published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) earlier this year showed Lewes district council had only delivered half of the housing required under its adopted local plan in the previous three years.
The council challenged the decision, since scores below 85% meant a 20% buffer would be added to its five-year housing land supply. But before the case could be heard in the High Court later this month the government accepted evidence offered by Lewes and a revised housing delivery result of 86% has been issued.
Emily O’Brien, planning cabinet member for Lewes council, said the revised result had come as a huge relief. “The hard work of our local communities in the preparation of our local and neighbourhood plans has not been jeopardised,” she added.
In a letter to the council dated 22 October the MHCLG said it had considered the evidence submitted by the council and agreed that the score for its housing delivery test should be revised.
The MHCLG letter continued: “We do not usually amend housing delivery test results but have done so here given your unique circumstances.
“However, the new result, and the method of calculating the decision, do not bind the Secretary of State in any future Housing Delivery Test calculation. Upon receipt of this letter, this result will remain in place until the next full publication of the Housing Delivery Test measurement.”
Yesterday housing secretary Robert Jenrick told the local government select committee the next Housing Delivery Test results would be published next month and the criteria for setting the housing requirement “is something we will give further thought to.”
Quizzed by committee member – and former Tory housing minister – Mark Prisk, Jenrick said existing local plans would proceed “on the basis they made. It’s not wise to open up existing plans. It’s better that [councils] proceed on that basis, but future plan-making will be on a new criteria.
“I want to see all parts of the country come forward with plans,” he said, adding that there may be “additional levers we can think of to encourage local authorities to do that”, although he declined to be drawn on what such levers might look like.
Lewes District Council’s rationale for challenging the Housing Delivery Test
A statement from Lewes District Council’s (LDC) legal team claimed MHCLG initially failed “to properly take into account that Lewes was in a unique position.
“This is because our housing requirement figure set out in our adopted Joint Core Strategy (prepared jointly with the South Downs National Park (SDNP)) was originally a joint figure that had to be disaggregated following the partial quashing of the Strategy (but only in so far as it applied to the SDNP) following a high court judgement in 2017.
“MHCLG initially failed to accept that LDC had a valid adopted plan, hence the 50% figure and Judicial Review proceedings were issued.
“Subsequently, MHCLG recalculated the figure to be 83%, but this result failed to fully take into account LDC’s evidence explaining how the figures had been reached and subsequently disaggregated.
“LDC continued with the challenge in the High Court as the re-issued 83% result, albeit better than the 50% result, still led to exactly the same consequence of delivery falling below 85% (having to apply a 20% buffer).
“MHCLG eventually decided to fully review our evidence and we provided a full explanation of how we reached the 86% result and this was taken into account. They [subsequently] re-issued the decision.”
The Housing Delivery Test
The test is an annual measurement of housing delivery in the area of relevant plan-making authorities (non-metropolitan districts, metropolitan boroughs, London boroughs and development corporations with plan-making and decision-making powers).
The government says the test does not apply to National Park Authorities, the Broads Authority or to development corporations without full plan-making and planning decision making powers.
The test is a percentage measurement of the number of net homes delivered against the number of homes required, as set out in the relevant strategic policies for the areas covered by the Housing Delivery Test, over a rolling three-year period.
The planning policy consequences of not meeting the test are set out in the revised National Planning Policy Framework.
If a council falls below an 85% test score, it must identify 20% more land – the “buffer” – for housing development than is already outlined in its local plan.
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