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16
Jul
Council will 'struggle' to meet Labour's new housing targets, admits senior councillor
A senior North Yorkshire councillor has admitted the council will “struggle” to meet government demands to reach new national housing targets.
Cllr Mark Crane, Conservative executive councillor for open to business on North Yorkshire Council, told a full council meeting on Wednesday (July 15) that the authority was currently considering a range of new sites for its new housing plan.
Council officials are currently drawing up a North Yorkshire Local Plan — which will designate land for development over the next 20 years.
It comes as the Labour government has increased North Yorkshire’s housing target from 1,361 homes a year to 4,156 a year, which has increased pressure on the council to identify land for new homes.
At the meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Bryn Griffiths, Liberal Democrat member for Stokesley, asked Cllr Crane whether enough sites were coming forward as part of the Local Plan process to meet the new targets.
Cllr Crane said the council was open to receiving more potential sites to be considered for the plan and was also in the process of removing sites which were “clearly not sustainable or suitable for development”.
He added that the council had received some large sites to consider, including new towns.
He said:
We do have a large number of sites, including some very big sites and new towns. While I have always said, both here and elsewhere, that I support new towns, I am also aware that they take an awful lot of time in the planning process and will not happen overnight.
However, Cllr Crane added that the authority would still have difficulty fulfilling the new government housebuilding ambitions.
He said:
I will also be clear with members, I think we will struggle to meet the targets that government have set us.
North Yorkshire Council was supposed to adopt a local plan within five years of its creation on April 1, 2023.
But it is now working to an adoption date of October 26, 2029.
The council blames government changes to the planning system for the delay.
However, the delay has raised concern among campaigners that the move may lead to more speculative applications from developers because there is no up-to-date planning blueprint allocating where homes should be built.
The Stray Ferret has reported extensively on Labour’s new housing targets policy, including its impact on residents and how the council plans to meet it with new settlements. You can read those articles here and here.
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