Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Strategic Director for Place.

Agreed:

RESOLVED that:

(1)  the publication of the Regulation 19 version of the Exeter Plan be approved for an eight-week period from 12 December 2024;

(2)  delegated authority be granted to the Strategic Director for Place, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for City Development, to agree minor changes to the Regulation 19 Publication version of the Exeter Plan before it is published; and

(3)  delegated authority be granted to the Strategic Director for Place, in consultation with Portfolio Holder for City Development, to agree a change to the publication date if required.

RECOMMENDED that Council:

(1)  approves the submission of the Exeter Plan, policies map, associated documents, evidence base and Regulation 19 representations, to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination; and

(2)  that delegated authority be granted to the Strategic Director for Place, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for City Development, to make minor changes to the Regulation 19 Publication version of the Exeter Plan and to submit these to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination.

Reason for Decision: As set out in the report.

The meeting was briefly paused during this item between 7pm and resumed at 7.08pm.

The Executive received the report which explained the progress made on the Exeter Plan (Local Plan) and sought approval to publish the Regulation 19 Publication version of the Plan in advance of its submission to the Planning Inspectorate. Exeter City Council had a statutory duty to prepare planning policy for the city as the Local Planning Authority and the Exeter Plan would replace the two existing principal development plan documents for the city if adopted.

During the presentation, particular reference was made to:-

·         the Exeter Plan had been in production for four years, and had included three full public consultations;

·         the plan presented was the regulation 19 version, which was effectively the final draft before submission to the planning inspectorate;

·         in July 2024, the new government had announced a series of planning reforms, which would require the Council to plan for an additional 3,500 homes, requiring additional sites to be identified, which could result in starting the local plan work over and by publishing the Exeter Plan sooner, the Council would avoid this risk, whilst addressing the additional homes at a later date;

·         since January 2024, the team had been assessing the consultation responses, gathering evidence and consulting Members, through Planning Member Working Groups and Scrutiny meetings;

·         the plan was now at its final stage, and going forward could only receive formal representations related to the four tests of soundness criteria as set out in 8.26 of the report, and that the Council would need to submit the plan in the form it was published for consultation, together with consultation representations;

·         the Exeter Plan would be submitted in June 2025 to the planning inspectorate, with examination expected to commence in November 2025 and adoption in 2026 (subject to Planning Inspectorate timeframes);

·         some of the key policies that had changed included the affordable housing at policy H4 and on mixed and balanced communities. The plan retained the commitment to addressing viability challenges and delivering sustainable and affordable housing across the city;

·         the affordable housing policy reflected both the received viability evidence and the updated housing needs assessment, given the differing costs between Brownfield and Green Field developments;

·         evidence showed there was a need for a 50:50 split pf the affordable housing between social rent and affordable home ownership. The existing policy required 35% affordable housing across all sites with a split of 70:30 (70% for social rent including affordable rent and 30% affordable rent/shared ownership). The new policy retained the 35% on Greenfield sites, but proposed 15% on Brownfield sites;

·         there was a proposal to introduce additional explanatory text as a minor amendment to the current version of the plan to highlight the intention to increase affordable housing delivery across the city;

·         the Council-owned housing program was also seeking to deliver 500 Council homes by 2030 and would be working with partnerships including Homes England and housing associations to support additional affordable housing;

·         the policy relating to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 132