This note summarises the emerging regional planning policies for housing development in Burton upon Trent and sets out opportunities to object to / comment on the proposals.

The existing Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) was prepared by West Midlands Regional Assembly (1) and approved by the Government in June 2004. It is an important document which forms part of the development plan for every part of the West Midlands Region, including East Staffordshire. It proposes that 2,500 dwellings should be built in Staffordshire county each year between 2007 and 2011, falling to 1600 each year after that.

The Regional Assembly decided that the strategy needed to be partially revised. They chose to do this in three phases - Phase 1 dealing with the Black Country only; Phase 2 dealing with housing, economic development, transport and waste for the whole region; and Phase 3 dealing with Rural and Environmental policies for the whole region. The rest of this note focuses on Phase 2 revision.

Progress on Phase 2

The regional assembly consulted on a number of options for the Phase 2 revision early in 2007. They have since been analysing the responses and developing their preferred option for Phase 2. This was formally submitted to the Secretary of State on 21 December 2007. It is available on the Assembly’s web site at www.wmra.gov.uk/page.asp?id=386.

What happens next?

There is a twelve week opportunity to make objections to and representations on the preferred option - from 7 January to 28 March 2008. These are made to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, who has now taken over responsibility for the document. The Secretary of State will appoint an independent panel to hold a “public examination” of the document in the autumn of 2008. She will select the matters she wants the panel to consider and the participants she wants to discuss them. Following the Public Examination, she will publish the proposed modifications to the document before issuing the final version, some time in 2009.

The government has recently indicated that it considers the Regional Assembly’s housing figures to be too low, and that it will be commissioning its own consultancy work to come up with alternatives. The intention is to make the results of this available in April, and the consultation period on the RSS may well be extended to enable those responding to take the results into account. CPRE already considers the Assembly’s figures to be too high, and we are extremely concerned at the Governments move, which seems to prejudge the issues.

It is crucially important that all those with views on the proposals express those views during the consultation period. Once the Phase 2 of revision has been formally approved by the Secretary of State, it forms part of the development plan for the area. Local development frameworks, which set out detailed policies and proposals for each local authority area, must conform generally to the strategy, which will also be an important factor in determining individual planning applications.

The Housing Proposals

The Phase 2 revision specifies the numbers of net dwellings to be built in each local area between 2006 and 2026. Net means the additional dwellings required , over and above the existing stock. If some existing dwellings are demolished, replacement dwellings will need to be built, in addition to the net increase.

The housing figures have been developed against the background of major changes in government policy. The Government has issued a Housing Green Paper calling for 3 million extra homes in England by 2020. They claim this is necessary to make houses more affordable, although CPRE disputes this. The figures also reflect higher forecasts of household growth, again issued by the Government. However the forecasts are subject to very great uncertainties.

The West Midlands Regional Assembly are proposing in the Phase 2 Revision of the RSS that 365,000 extra dwellings should be built in the West Midlands region between 2006 and 2026. This would be an increase of about 16% in the existing dwelling stock; 25% above recent building rates (2); and 50% above proposals in the currently approved Regional Spatial Strategy, which envisaged a fall in house building. But despite these high figures, the Assembly’s proposals fall 10 - 20% short of the figures the Government appears to want for the West Midlands (3).

The increases fall disproportionately on different parts of the West Midlands. The Major Urban Areas (4) currently account for some 55% of the region’s dwellings but they would get only 46% of the new dwellings, the rest going to the shire counties. In the shires, ten “settlements for significant development” have been identified where housing and other development would be concentrated. These include Burton upon Trent.

The Proposals for Burton upon Trent

The Strategy proposes that 12,900 extra dwellings should be built in East Staffordshire district over the next twenty year period. This would be an increase of 28% in the number of dwellings in the district. It would represent almost a doubling of recent house building rates. Over 85% (11,000) of the extra East Staffordshire dwellings would be built in or adjacent to Burton upon Trent.

Information on land availability for housing development suggests that slightly under half the extra dwellings in East Staffordshire could be built on previously developed land sites. Green field sites would need to be found for some 6,600 new dwellings, the great majority of which would no doubt be adjacent to Burton. Development options here are severely limited by the floodplain of the River Trent and the boundary with Derbyshire to the East. In practice it appears that the majority of the new development would have to take place on the western side of the town, with the risk of encroachment into the high quality landscape of Needwood Forest. The small areas of remaining green belt on the eastern side of the town could also be at risk of development.

Conclusion

The housing proposals in the revised Regional Spatial Strategy could have very serious consequences for the environment and character of the area. Although final decisions on exactly where the new development would take place are not likely to be taken until the local development framework phase, it will be too late by then to influence the overall quality of development proposed. That can only be done in the Regional Spatial Strategy Revision.

CPRE would like to work with local campaigning organisations to:

A. Ensure that effective objections are made to the RSS proposals before the deadline of 28 March 2008, both by CPRE West Midlands and by local organisations.

B. Identify where possible the likely environmental and other implications of the level of development proposed.

CPRE West Midlands
January 2008

Footnotes:

1. The Regional Assembly consists of councilors from each of the local authorities in the West Midlands, plus representatives of the business community and other stakeholders.

2. Rates over the 5 years 2001 to 2006.

3. The Government’s National Housing and Planning Advice Unit recommends an illustrative housing supply range of 20,400 to 23,000 per annum for the West Midlands - ie 408,000 to 460,000 over 20 years.

4. Birmingham and the Black Country, Coventry, Sollihull and North Staffordshire.

If you would like more information on the issues raised above, please contact:

James Botham at CPRE

Tel: 07752 - 397786

E: jdbotham@hotmail.com