Going back a few years there was an exercise to assess what land exists in the area that might be developed, for housing and other uses. This process identified a number of sites that were possibly available. However there are also sites that though available the planning permission just would not be forthcoming.
In the intervening period agencies such as the HCA (Homes and Communities Agency) have released land that now has housing on it, such as OakGrove as it is now called.
This exercise has to be repeated as part of the work of the Plan and there will be communications going out from the Housing Group to developers and PR aimed at others we don’t know, who may have land they’d consider as potentially available.
It is very necessary for the Plan to be doing this work. On the one side to know what sites there are that could take housing, also to be very clear as to the capacity of the area if it were to be the case that the Plan and the area it represents is challenged as to why it can’t take more. I should restate that. The area represented by the Plan will be challenged as to why it can’t take more and it has to have a perfectly robust and clear answer to hand. These challenges will be coming from outside of the area and from a number of parties. Many of these challenges are already being made all the while anyway, from developers, from Government, perhaps adjoining authorities looking to see how they’ll meet demands on them to provide housing land.
Geoff Duck, Chairman Steering Group of the CR3 Forum
CR3 Forum 