Redbridge Council is set to have to spend more than £3million on a new local plan after failing to meet government housing targets.
Redbridge approved its fifteen-year local plan in 2018 but already needs to start afresh after falling short of the government’s three-year, 2,900-home target by a third.
A roadmap for the review, approved by Redbridge’s cabinet earlier this month, estimates that a new plan will not be adopted until late 2025 and will cost £3.3m.
Cabinet member Sheila Bain, who has held the portfolio for planning and planning enforcement since 2018, said the current plan adopted has had “many successes”.
However, she added: “It hasn’t been able to deal with our failure to meet the housing delivery test and five-year land supply. This means our housing policies are out-of-date and puts us at risk of inappropriate development.”
Until a new plan is approved, the council will have less power to reject planning applications it does not like.
This is because government policy introduced in 2018 punishes local authorities that fail to meet housing targets by limiting their power to reject planning applications to cases where a development’s negative impacts “significantly and demonstrably” outweigh the benefits.
This requirement, known as “presumption in favour of sustainable development”, is currently imposed on Redbridge.
The roadmap published in cabinet papers shows that while planning work goes on behind the scenes, a public consultation will be carried out through a series of "community design forums" that are currently “being developed”.
A draft plan will then be published for consultation in the summer of 2023, followed by a revised plan in the summer of 2024.
A public examination led by a planning inspector will be held in April 2025 before the plan is formally approved at a full council meeting.
The cabinet report argues that creating a whole new plan means the council will have “greater control of placemaking” and can apply new policies, which have “shifted considerably” since 2018.
This includes a revised National Planning Policy Framework, a new London Plan, and the Environment Act, which all came into effect in 2021.
The report added: “[Changes to the plan] will include reconsidering the options for the overall distribution and growth and will allow for a more design-led approach to heights and density.
“There will also be more focus on small and medium sites which will be easier to develop.
“This will also allow us to develop new policies to support and work more collaboratively with small and medium size developers who play a key role in delivering housing in Redbridge.”
Blame for the housing delivery failure has been laid partly at the feet of private developers, who are accused of delaying the construction of approved applications.
In the 2019-20 financial year, plans for around 2,500 new homes were approved, five times the number actually completed the following year.
Other challenges to housing delivery include local opposition to large schemes, the unexpected cost of fire safety repairs following the Grenfell Tower disaster and the increasing price of labour and materials.
However, Redbridge has not met the government’s housing targets since the 2006-7 financial year.
More than 2,700 families now live in temporary accommodation and 7,400 households are on the social housing waiting list, which has an average wait of 11 years for a three-bed home.
Conservative group leader Paul Canal said he has “grave concerns” about the review.
He recalled the council’s bid to to build 800 homes on Green Belt land at Oakfield Playing Fields that was rejected by a planning inspector in 2017.
To monitor the review, a strategic planning panel has been formed of four Labour councillors and one Conservative.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the council said the panel met once in August to discuss the local plan but did not take a record of what was said.
Despite the challenge of meeting the housing targets, the council’s planning team celebrated a ‘best council services team’ award in July this year.
A month later, Redbridge’s head of planning and interim council house programme director Brett Leahy moved to Enfield Council to become director of planning and growth.
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