More on ....... 'working in the dark' ................................... The District Council and the housing assessment

There are several questions around the delays and lack of information around the housing numbers proposed by the District Council:
Futures Forum: Missing deadlines ... and 'working in the dark' ...The District Council and the draft local plan... and the housing assessment

The latest Express & Echo reports on the 'delays':

First "complexity", now "elections", delay East Devon's vital housing development document

By Exeter Express and Echo | Posted: February 14, 2015

A delay to a vital document setting out where thousands of homes could be built across East Devon are set to be prolonged because of the local elections in May.

East Devon District Council commissioned three reports, including a crucial report to establish the number of houses that need to be built – a Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) – after a Government inspector criticised the authority for failing to provide enough evidence to support its recommendation that 15,000 homes are required in its Local Plan 2006 – 2026.

Last month, the Echo revealed that the lengthy delay to the Local Plan, which was requested by the inspector last April and expected last summer, was due to the “complexity of the work”.

Now, authority officials have written to the inspector to give him a progress update and informed him of more “inevitable” delays to the Local Plan caused by the forthcoming local elections in May.

Details of the reports, commissioned by East Devon District Council, are being treated as “highly confidential” until officials fully analyse them, but they will inform how many houses must be built to satisfy demand over the next decade or so.

Until a Local Plan is in place and an agreed housing need figure is secured, campaigners including Dr Margaret Hall, secretary of the East Devon branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, have warned that “our countryside is not safe” from development.

The draft SHMA was jointly commissioned by East Devon, Exeter, Mid Devon and Teignbridge councils and Dartmoor National Park Authority, with Devon County Council.

The report was required in order to establish a “robust understanding” of an objectively assessed housing need across the district.

While the SHMA report was being produced, council officials realised that housing needs, potentially arising as a result of possible future job growth, warranted particular attention.

Consultants at Edge Analytics were tasked with establishing the relationship between job growth and housing requirements, while experts at Ash Futures Ltd were employed to advise on future job growth levels in East Devon.

Council leader, Councillor Paul Diviani, described the trio of reports as an “integral part” of the East Devon Local Plan. “Their undertaking has been an enormously complex process, which has taken longer than would have been desirable,” he admitted. “But the benefits of undertaking these reports should not be underestimated.”

He said that “best practice” is at the heart of the council’s decision making and the need for the work has “fully justified” the need for additional consultancy support, although the council cannot yet reveal the cost.

The council previously confirmed that the delay to finalising the plan is set to cost a further £12,000, by way of consultants’ studies fees, on top of the 2013/14 inspection budget of £110,000 plus £50,000 in reserve funding.

But it is not yet known if this figure could rise as a result of further announced delays.

Cllr Diviani said the council will now consult on the reports and proposed changes to the plan. He confirmed that the hope had been to present the reports to members by March or April, with a six week consultation, but the looming elections have made this plan “unviable”. He continued: “There is concern that the process could be seen as politically motivated, which would overshadow the soundness of the plan.”

Reports are now due to go before the council after the May elections.

First "complexity", now "elections" delay East Devon's vital housing development document | Exeter Express and Echo

Here is an update from the East Devon Watch blog:


WHY ARE THE CONSULTANTS REPORTS ON HOUSING TO REMAIN SECRET UNTIL AFTER DISTRICT ELECTIONS?

16th February 2015

We know what the Leader of East Devon District Council gives as his “reason”

"We are very much aware of the need to finalise our Local Plan, but at the same time we have to take the reports with proposed changes to the Plan to our members for consideration and consultation. We had envisaged that the earliest we would have been able to take the reports to our members would be March or early April 2015. The process of consultation would then take around six-weeks.

“However, because of the forthcoming local and national elections this would not appear to be a viable route to follow, as there is concern that the process could be seen as politically motivated, which would overshadow the soundness of the plan.

“While mindful of the need to progress quickly, the significance to the process of members consideration and consultation should not be overlooked, and consequently it is unlikely that we will take the report to our members until shortly after the May election.”

but let us look at this forensically.

The Planning Inspector, when he looked at the Draft Local Plan, threw it out. A main reason was that the number of houses to be built had no evidence to support the figure. What slight evidence given was very old, based on out of date information and therefore not to be trusted. He basically told EDDC to go back to the drawing board and give him hard evidence for his figures.

Under the National Planning Policy Framework, EDDC had a “duty to co-operate” with adjoining local authorities in case those authorities had housing needs that could not be met within their areas and must therefore be shared. For reasons never explained, although this meant in practice liaising with Exeter City Council and West Dorset, EDDC took the decision (where? when?) to extend the area to include Teignbridge, Mid Devon and Dartmoor National Park. This meant that consultants had more information to gather and more situations to take into account. It should be noted that the “duty to co-operate” is NOT a duty to agree – only to be seen to be consulting with neighbouring authorities on their needs.

So, two sets of consultants were employed. Edge Analytics were employed to look at the link between housing and employment, Ash Futures Limited were employed to look at future job growth levels in East Devon only. It appears now that both companies have produced their reports.

Usually, when consultants have produced reports, they are circulated to councillors who then have the opportunity to comment on them. Unfortunately, in East Devon, this has often been misinterpreted as an opportunity to rewrite them almost in their entirety. When EDDC doesn’t like numbers, it likes to have them changed, rather than accepting that they might be right! Take the employment land figures that were produced by two consultants for the Draft Local Plan. EDDC (or rather the East Devon Business Forum under its Chairman, disgraced ex-councillor Graham Brown) decided the figure was too low, gave their own much higher figure and this was the one which EDDC chose to go with.

Now, here we are with two reports and the Leader has decided that their contents are too politically sensitive for the public (and councillors not in the “need to know” group?) to have sight of.
What is politically sensitive about consultants reporting hard facts and evidence?

As we noted earlier, there are only two possible explanations:

1. The number of houses is below that which EDDC put in its Draft Local Plan. In this case, EDDC has egg on its face. Not only does it have egg on its face, all the current developments rushed through because we have no Local Plan would be surplus to requirements.

2. The number of houses is higher than that which EDDC put in its Draft Local Plan, either because:

(a) they just got the number wrong or

and this is more likely

(b) now that they are having to take the housing needs of not only Exeter and West Dorset into account but also Teignbridge, Mid Devon and Dartmoor National Park, EDDC will have to commit itself to taking overload from all these areas into its own area (for example, by making Cranbrook even larger than planned).

THIS IS NOT POLITICALLY SENSITIVE IT IS PARTY POLITICAL SENSITIVE AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LOCAL PLAN PROCESS

AND THE DELAY IN PUBLISHING CAN ONLY BE SEEN AS A WAY OF ENSURING THAT BAD NEWS DOES NOT COST THE CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY MORE VOTES AT THE FORTHCOMING DISTRICT ELECTION

WHY are the consultants reports on housing to remain secret until after district elections? | East Devon Watch


STOP PRESS: CONSULTANTS HOUSING REPORTS ALREADY OUT OF DATE!

16th February 2015

Is this another reason that EDDC would have egg on its face if it published the two consultants reports on housing?

On the website of one of the consultation companies is this:

“22/01/2015

The 2012-based Household Projection Model for Local Authorities in England, from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), is due for release in February 2015.

These household projections are based on the 2012-based sub-national population projections (SNPP) for Local Authorities from ONS.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states that these official household projections should provide the starting-point for the assessment of future housing needs.2012-based DCLG Household Projection Model

So, already their reports are out of date and would probably not be accepted by the Inspector for this reason!

Had EDDC knuckled down in March last year and got these reports ready by, say, September 2014, our Local Plan could now be in place!

STOP PRESS: CONSULTANTS HOUSING REPORTS ALREADY OUT OF DATE! | East Devon Watch
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