Agenda item

The Planning Policy Lead Officer introduced a report seeking member’s views on the Submission Versions of the Aylesbury and Wycombe Local Plans. It was recommended that on the grounds that it was not reasonable or sustainable to plan to import housing into Aylesbury from the part of South Buckinghamshire District that is not within the same functional Housing Market Area (HMA). The report also highlighted that no objections would be made to the submission version of the Wycombe Local Plan. Both Aylesbury and Wycombe had produced submission versions of their Local Plans which was reported as having implications for Slough due to the proposal within the Aylesbury Plan to import housing from Wycombe, Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire districts.

The Vale of Aylesbury Plan sought to promote significant growth of housing developments over the plan period. The Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (HEDNA) concluded that 19,400 new houses were needed over the plan period (2013-2033) in order to meet Aylesbury Vale’s needs and this would have resulted in an annual average of 970 homes being built per year. The annual average for delivery of homes was reported as an ambitious target and that Aylesbury Vale had a large growth area which was able to take the unmet housing need from surrounding areas. The Plan proposed that Aylesbury Vale should accommodate the unmet need of 2,250 dwellings from High Wycombe and 5,750 from Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire.

The Plan proposed to import housing from South Bucks which would result in an under supply of housing. There were also concerns surrounding the adverse effects of the local housing market which was currently deprived of new housing. The plan would restrict the supply of affordable housing and would cause existing residents to re-locate to surrounding affordable areas, which could impact Slough’s housing market. Objections had been raised as there were fears that housing numbers could not be balanced against realistic delivery of these homes and that a proportion of homes should be built within Slough borough. It was highlighted that Wessex Economics had produced a ‘Housing Delivery Study for Buckinghamshire’ and it was felt that the delivery of the emerging Plan numbers would be challenging as the appetite for private sector developers to build at this scale one location had been largely untested and that recent proposals to continue to expand the Milton Keynes area could inhibit Aylesbury’s ability to deliver such development growth.

Members discussed a range of questions which included:

The impact of the projected additional no. of houses per year.

The impact of the expansion of Heathrow and unsustainable commuting patterns around the borough.

The Northern Expansion of Slough.

In conclusion, it was recommended that an objection be raised to the element of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan which proposed to accommodate all of the unmet housing needs from South Buckinghamshire. At the end of the discussion, Members agreed the recommendations.

Resolved –  That an objection be made to the submission version of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan and that no objections be made to the submission version of the Wycombe Local Plan.