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05
Nov
'Out of kilter': Deputy leader criticises government targets as land submitted for housing plan
The deputy leader of North Yorkshire Council has criticised “out of kilter” government targets as 47 plots of council-owned land have been put forward for a 20-year housing plan.
The authority is compiling its local plan, which will set out how much land should be provided – and where it should be – to accommodate new homes, jobs and associated infrastructure.
Called the North Yorkshire Local Plan, it will supersede plans created by now defunct authorities, such as Harrogate Borough Council, which was abolished in April 2023.
The move comes as the Labour government increased North Yorkshire’s housing targets to 4,156 a year — it had previously been 1,361 — which has increased pressure on the council to identify land for new homes.
Cllr Gareth Dadd, deputy leader of the council, said the 47 plots of land which the council intends to put forward “may help” reach the target — but criticised the government-imposed targets as “out of kilter” as some city areas have a lower figure.
In Leeds, for example, the target was set at 3,811 homes a year. Meanwhile, York's target was set at 1,251.
At an executive meeting yesterday, Cllr Dadd said:
The land may be suitable and it may actually help with the bombshell — and I do call it a bombshell — of the housing targets which have recently been imposed on us by central government.
Housing targets, I may add, that are out of kilter with those targets decreasing in many areas that are endured by some of our city areas within the UK.
Cllr Dadd added that the council had been “open and transparent” about the sites chosen to be put forward.
The Rudfarlington Farm site in Harrogate.
However, he said any consultation over which sites would be chosen to be included in the Local Plan would come at a later date.
Of the sites chosen to be put forward, 15 fall within the Harrogate district:
These include:
- Rudfarlington Farm, Harrogate
- Land near Gallows Hill, Ripon
- Land off Kirkby Road, Ripon
- Land near Wetherby Railway path, Spofforth
- Land off Station Road, Whixley
- Land off High Street, Whixley
- Land off Thorndikes Lane, Minskip
- Land off Thorndikes Lane and Harrogate Road, Minskip
- Land off Back Lane, Marton-cum-Grafton
- Land at Cardale Park, Harrogate
- Land at Heath Lodge, Harrogate
- Beech Hill Farm, Ouseburn
- Land off Prince Royal Way, Pannal
- Land off Leeds Road, Pannal
- Land near Allerton Waste Recovery Park
A full list of council-owned sites to be put forward, including images, can be found here.
Senior councillors voted to submit the plots of land for the Local Plan at today's meeting.
The council has stressed that no assessment of sites have been completed at this stage and land submitted may not necessarily be taken forward as part of the local plan process.
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