Formal discussions about planning rules, including where new homes should be built in Horsham, could be halted after the government announced it was revising housing targets.
A set of eleven sessions to discuss the district council’s local plan – a set of planning policies, including the designation of areas suitable for housing – started this week.
But yesterday, proposed new planning rules and targets for councils across England were released, including an uplift in the number of homes the government expects to be built in Horsham from 917 to 1,294.
Planning inspector Luke Fleming, who is overseeing the sessions, had already said he has concerns over whether Horsham’s local plan is legally sound.
This includes whether it is building enough homes on behalf of neighbouring areas which simply don’t have enough land to meet their own targets, known as the duty to cooperate. All Sussex councils are being told their housing targets will increase.
This morning, Mr Fleming said the new guidance was so different from what’s currently in place, the whole procedure may have to be paused.
He said: “I’ve got a doubt in my mind as to how far I’m going to be able to take some of the discussion at the hearings without concluding some of the actions I’ve already identified.
“I’m not going to make a big announcement now, but I’m beginning to wonder, in light of being unable to have the answer to some of those questions that I’ve asked … it’s entering my mind whether a pause in the hearing programme may be the best solution for all involved while we gather some further information on those action points.”
Mr Fleming said he also had other concerns which he had yet to set out.
The plan has been in development since April 2018, is scheduled to be examined during 11 hearing sessions, the first of which was held on Tuesday (December 10).
Mr Fleming has asked for more information about Horsham’s position on its duty to cooperate, which the council is working to provide.
At the start of the second hearing, Mr Fleming said he was ‘a little bit more concerned’ than he had been on day one.
And on Thursday (December 12), he told those present that he was pondering whether a pause might be in order.
Any concerns Mr Fleming may have had about the Plan so far were added to when the government announced a new version of the National Planning Policy Framework on Thursday.
While the examination is being carried out under the September 2023 version of the framework, it will need to look at the changes in the new version. And the council itself will have to formulate a response to the new framework.
Mr Fleming said such changes had happened before during other examinations and it had been quite simple for councils to come up with a response with little impact on the examination.
But this time he said he was ‘a bit nervous’, adding: “It’s not as simple as it was before.”
A council spokesman told the meeting that it was “going to impose greater challenges” and the authority would have to look at the new framework in greater detail before the “impact and effect” on the process was known.
Referring to the issues raised around soundness and the duty to co-operate – coupled with the new National Planning Policy Framework – Mr Fleming
Unless he decides otherwise, the hearing sessions will continue to be held at the council offices, at Parkside, in Chart Way, during the weeks commencing December 16, January 13 and January 20.
