Housing
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We want to achieve sustainable
communities where everyone has access to and can afford decent
housing that meets their needs, in a balanced housing market.
Overall housing requirements
The Central Lancashire City area is a popular area to live. The rate
of new house building has been high over the last 5 years (over
7,300 new homes) and the population is growing steadily. About a
third of all new planning permissions for new homes between 2001 and
2004 were on ‘windfall’ sites (sites not identified in the current
local plans).
Looking forward from now to 2021, the area’s population is expected
to increase from 340,600 to 358,500 (5% or 18,000). During that
period we are likely to need more homes as the number of households
is expected to increase from 144,000 to 165,000 (14.6% or 21,000).
Fewer people will live in each home, from an average of 2.36 people
in 2006, to 2.17 in 2021, although in some black and minority ethnic
communities larger extended families will still be the norm.
Recent house building rates in the Central Lancashire City area have
exceeded county wide and regional planning requirements even though
housing growth in Lancashire has been restricted to encourage
regeneration in Liverpool, Manchester and East Lancashire.
By contrast, new and emerging national regional planning policy
recognises that the Central Lancashire City is experiencing economic
growth, which in turn requires a suitable supply of housing to meet
the needs of existing and new residents and new residents who are
contributing to this growth. The draft Regional Spatial Strategy
sets higher housing targets for the Central Lancashire City area
than those in the current structure plan.
We need to think about how we plan to deliver the right type of
housing to meet these predicted needs, whilst managing housing land
supply so that strategic targets are met in line with national and
regional planning policies. We will need to think carefully about:
• how much land should be identified and ‘‘allocated’’ for housing
development;
• how far we can rely on other ‘windfall’ sites coming forward; and
• the rate that sites are developed. (It may be necessary to release
land in phases to make sure that the scale of housing development is
in line with the rate of employment development.)
What are your views on the amount and type of new homes that should
be built in the Central Lancashire City area?
Affordable and special needs housing
House prices across the Central Lancashire City area are above the
average for Lancashire. Prices for terraced homes, traditionally
affordable to first time buyers, are much higher than in other parts
of Lancashire. This is an issue that we need to face.
Not everyone can or wants to own their home, so other types of
housing must be provided. This can be difficult as government
funding for rented and shared ownership accommodation is limited. We
need to think about how we can cross-fund affordable housing through
market housing schemes.
In the future there will be more elderly people requiring extra care
of one form or another. Meeting special housing needs requires
different solutions that can partly be provided by private
developer. Traditionally this has been provided in sheltered housing
and elderly people’s homes with varying degrees of nursing care but
new types of housing are now being proposed to meet some of this
need. We also need to think about needs of gypsies and other
travellers.
The Local Development Framework can provide a framework for
delivering new affordable housing, and the way that we do this is
one of our main challenges.
What do you think we might do to deliver good quality, affordable
and special needs homes in the Central Lancashire City area?
Decent and adaptable homes
Most homes in our area are of good quality, but there are pockets of
unfit housing that need to be sorted out. The government is
promoting a ‘decent homes’ standard to make sure that minimum
standards are met. There are real issues with improving some
privately rented housing where grant aid may not be appropriate or
enough. The worst properties are considered ‘unfit’ and the amount
of unfit housing in our area varies, but there are high levels in
Preston where 6.7% (2,984 dwellings) of private sector homes are
unfit (2004 figures).
Another initiative is to increase the amount of accommodation that
is suitable, without major adaptation, to ‘lifetime’ living, meaning
that people can stay longer in their homes as they get older.
Have you got any ideas about how we ensure that all of our homes
become decent lifetime homes?
Brownfield targets
The government wants 60% of new homes to be built on ’brownfield‘ or
previously developed land. The draft Regional Spatial Strategy
increases this target to 80% for the Central Lancashire City area.
We consider this a little ambitious so have suggested a 75% target,
based on recent research.
Brownfield targets are rarely the only consideration when deciding
planning applications. Other factors include:
• whether the site is in a sustainable location;
• whether development would affect the overall supply of housing
land; and
• whether there is a viable employment use for the land which should
take priority.
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