Labour-run Leeds City Council has been re-consulting with residents on its draft plan to build 5,000 new homes in the Outer North East.
Although this process is one to determined by Leeds City Council and not by the House of Commons, Alec has been active in opposing the Council’s overall housing target of 66,000 homes for over five years, including when he led a delegation to the Council’s Core Strategy Inquiry in order to oppose the inflated housing target. It is this target that is causing the pressure on greenfield and greenbelt land in our area today.
Alongside local Conservative Councillors Alec has undertaken the following actions in opposing the Council’s target:
5th Sep 2011 – Questions in the House of Commons on housing supply: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2011-09-05/debates/1109054000025/HousingSupply#contribution-1109054000155
5th Sep 2012 – Questions in the House of Commons at 6.18pm on priority of using brownfield land first: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2012-09-05/debates/12090527000003/Housing#contribution-12090536000116
23rd Oct 2013 – Spoke at Leeds City Council’s Core Strategy Inquiry, in front of an independent Inspector and alongside Conservative Councillors, in order to argue the case against the Labour Council’s housing target.
8th Jan 2014 – Questions in the House of Commons at 3.18pm on Leeds City Council’s housing target: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2014-01-08/debates/14010841000001/Housing#contribution-14010855000098
8th Sep 2014 – Wrote to the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government asking for a Ministerial intervention to review Leeds City Council’s housing targets.
Below is a copy of a joint submission to Leeds City Council’s draft Site Allocations Plan in the Outer North East from Alec Shelbrooke MP and Harewood Ward Members, Cllr Ryan Stephenson, Cllr Matthew Robinson and Cllr Rachael Procter – 28th October 2016.
- Introduction
It is our belief, as locally elected representatives, that Leeds City Council’s overinflated housing target is the root cause of pressure on greenfield and greenbelt sites in the communities we serve. It is therefore our collective belief that Leeds City Council’s decision to force a housing target of 5,000 new homes on the Outer North East is causing unnecessary pressure on greenfield and greenbelt sites, such as MX2-39 and HG2-28, within the Harewood Ward. We remain opposed to this plan and believe that Leeds City Council should reduce its housing target and therefore remove the need to allocate these sites.
To that end, we wholeheartedly support the content of the following White Paper to come before a full meeting of Leeds City Councillors on Wednesday 9th November 2016:
“This Council recalls that all Opposition Groups on the Council opposed the administration’s 70,000 housing target, regarding it as unrealistic and unnecessary. Council believes that these fears are now being realised. The ongoing issue of the city’s inflated housing target and the recent findings on 5 year land supply mean that many Leeds communities face the prospect of unsustainable and unwanted housing development.”
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), published by the Coalition Government on 27th March 2012, set out a clear objective for local authorities to publish their ‘Local Plans’ for the allocation of new homes. It provides a framework within which local communities (in the form of constitutionalised Neighbourhood Forums and Parish Councils) and elected local Councils can produce plans that reflect the needs of their local communities.
Leeds City Council first published its Local Plan for public consultation in September 2015. Prior to this date, following complaints from a number of constituents regarding Leeds City Council’s actions as a planning authority, we wrote to the Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government requesting ministerial intervention. On 27 March 2015 the Minister of State for Housing & Planning, Brandon Lewis MP, responded:
“Local planning authorities have the statutory responsibility for planning and development matters in their areas. The Government is clear that localism and decentralisation are at the heart of their planning agenda and the general approach of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is not to interfere with the jurisdiction of authorities on planning matters.”
It is therefore evident that the detailed formation and adoption of the local authority’s plan is a matter to be determined solely by Leeds City Council and we therefore submit this document as a joint response to the Council’s revised Site Allocation Plan in the Outer North East.
- Background
In the decade preceding 2010 housebuilding in the United Kingdom fell to its lowest level since the Second World War, while at the same time the UK population increased by over 3 million. This rise in population was in part due to there being 1.4 million more births than deaths and in part due to the policy decision of the 1997-2010 Governments to weaken immigration controls pertaining to migration from inside and outside of the European Union. The result was 2.1 million more international migrants arriving than emigrants leaving the UK.
These factors led to unprecedented pressures on the housing market across the United Kingdom, where demand outstripped supply and triggered a house price increase of 117% between Q1 2000 and Q2 2010. Residents in my constituency have long complained of the difficulty young people and those on low incomes experience in getting onto the housing ladder.
Nonetheless, and despite common misconceptions, the overall landmass of the United Kingdom that is currently developed is just 11.6% (this figure includes urban and rural infrastructure such as highways). Therefore, local authority officials, planners and developers would be forgiven for thinking that there is sufficient land available to develop new homes in the United Kingdom. This view does, however, ignore the fact that the UK is made up of communities and not just sprawling developments within vast swathes of agricultural land. Communities are made up of people, and people should have a right to shape the communities in which they live and work.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) decentralised and transferred power from central government to local authorities by requiring local councils to produce a deliverable rolling five year land supply for new dwellings. We must all recognise that factors of the previous decade have given rise to the need for more affordable housing in Leeds; housing to help young people into the property market, assist families to upsize and pensioners to downsize.
It would be a fair assessment to say that the policies of the 2010-2015 Government require local authorities to adopt a plan for the building of new homes. It would, however, be improper to suggest that central government is forcing councils to build on specific individual sites within an authority area. As is set out in legislation the responsibility for allocating sites for housebuilding lies solely with the local authority and it is therefore of paramount importance that the concerns of residents in our area are taken seriously by Leeds City Council as it seeks to allocate land for new homes.
- The Housing Target
The NPPF puts a requirement on local councils to have a deliverable rolling five year land supply for new housing. The figure at which Leeds City Council set its housing target was 66,000 new homes between 2012 and 2028. This figure was voted on and adopted by Leeds City Council on 12th November 2014. It was not supported by Conservative Councillors.
In an earlier Core Strategy Inquiry on 23rd October 2013, we made representations alongside local community groups and parish councils and put forward the argument that Leeds City Council had set its housing target too high for the plan period. Together with residents, we questioned the validity of projected population figures used by the Council in setting its housing target and we urged the Council to re-evaluate its methodology. By reducing the figure to a lower target of new dwellings the Council could ease pressure on greenfield and greenbelt land in our area.
Three years later we remain resolute in the view that the only sure-fire way to relieve pressure on sites in the Harewood Ward, such as MX2-39 and HG2-28, is to revise down the self-imposed housing target.
In March 2015, new figures from the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the number of households needed in Leeds is projected to rise by only 44,500 by 2028 – less than expected. Despite this new evidence reaffirming the arguments made by ourselves and communities in our area, the then Executive Member for Planning on Leeds City Council, Labour Councillor Peter Gruen, responded:
“Our Core Strategy remains in place and we continue to work on preparing our draft Site Allocations Plan for new housing around the city, and we do have a number of sites around the city which have widespread support which can be brought forward for early approval”.
Although, as Conservative representatives, we lost an argument against the ruling administration on Leeds City Council, it remains our opinion that the current target is unachievable. By keeping the target of 66,000 dwellings, the Council is causing a direct pressure on local communities to allocate land for the building of new homes. In doing so, by opting for the higher figure the Council is diluting its ability to allocate housing on brownfield land first. In line with a pending White Paper motion referred to above, we therefore urge the administration to review its housing target and relieve pressure on greenfield and greenbelt land in the communities we represent.
- Greenfield and Greenbelt Land
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out a national position on the protection of greenbelt land in the United Kingdom:
“The Government attaches great importance to Green Belts. The fundamental aim of Green Belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open; the essential characteristics of Green Belts are their openness and their permanence.” NPPF, DCLG.
In Leeds City Council’s Site Allocation Plan 20% of all sites allocated for residential development are apportioned on land currently classified as greenbelt. A further 18% of land is classified as greenfield and 62% brownfield. Across the local authority area brownfield sites allocated for residential dwellings account for 39,600 of the 66,000 homes in the housing target, this means over 26,000 dwellings have been allocated for development on greenfield or greenbelt land.
Within the Elmet & Rothwell constituency Leeds City Council is seeking to allocate 19 greenbelt sites for development, totalling 6,937 dwellings (57% of all new homes), including site MX2-39 in the Harewood Ward. Further greenfield sites have been put forward for considerations, including HG2-28.
Leeds City Council should heed arguments made by local communities at the Core Strategy Inquiry and acknowledge that there is now a compelling case to revise down the housing target and remove this pressure on greenfield and greenbelt land. In doing so, the Council could protect many of the greenfield and greenbelt sites in the Outer North East.
- Conclusion
Alongside the residents we represent in the Harewood Ward, we find it very hard to understand why Leeds City Council are forcing 5,000 new homes upon our rural communities in the Outer North East. Ploughing ahead with this strategy tacitly approves development on greenfield and greenbelt land, whilst brownfield sites elsewhere across the city remain undeveloped.
For over five years we have argued against the Council’s housing target and we are now pleased to see that thousands of residents in our communities are supporting the arguments we’ve made over this lengthy period of time. Collectively, we therefore call on Leeds City Council to relieve the pressure on greenfield and greenbelt sites, such as MX2-39 and HG2-28, from development by reducing the Council’s housing target.
Yours sincerely,
Alec Shelbrooke MP
Member of Parliament for Elmet & Rothwell
Cllr Ryan Stephenson
Cllr Matthew Robinson
Cllr Rachael Procter
Harewood Ward