Meeting details can be found here.
Council notes the government consultation published on 30 July 2024 on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system including the proposed changes to the methodology for calculating new housing targets. Indicative figures imply an annual target for Wirral of 1,755 new homes, 1,027 or 141% higher than the corresponding figure in the Council’s
emerging local plan.
Council agrees that such numbers, if confirmed, threaten to fundamentally change Wirral by:
- undermining the unanimously agreed brownfield only policy for new housing and diverting resources away from the regeneration of Wirral’s left bank
- increasing urban sprawl with inevitable implications for carbon emissions and biodiversity loss
- posing a fundamental threat to Wirral’s green belt and the special character of many communities across Wirral
- Council also notes that the proposed reforms imply a preference for brownfield land development but do not indicate additional support for brownfield land reclamation and development to help
- meet the vast increase in housing numbers
- do not prioritise the existence of over a quarter of a million long term empty properties in England or suggest giving local authorities additional powers to bring such properties back into use
- do not address the carbon implications of increased urban sprawl and how this will impact on binding national targets for net zero emissions
and endorses the recent comments made by Claire Holland, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association; “While national government can provide useful guidance, it is local councils and communities who know their areas best, so changes to national planning policy should be suitably flexible to allow authorities to make judgement decisions on managing competing demands for uses in their local areas.”1
Council further notes the letter from the Deputy Prime Minister to all local authority leaders on 30 July 2024 and particularly the comments regarding local plans currently at examination:
“where there is a significant gap between the plan and the new local housing need figure, we will expect authorities to begin a plan immediately in the new system” and the significant implications this has for the future of Wirral’s Local Plan.
Council reaffirms its commitment to the Birkenhead 2040 Framework and its ambition to fundamentally change the Left Bank of Wirral so that it becomes a place that is more attractive to investment from the private and public sector and therefore addresses market failure in the provision of new housing which significantly contributes to the stark inequalities that exist in Wirral.
Accordingly, Council instructs the Chief Planning Officer when preparing a response to the Government consultation to explicitly address:
- Wirral’s unique position given its potential to deliver large scale brownfield only housing and associated regenerative placemaking the negative knock-on effects that releasing green belt land would have on achieving successful regeneration and additional housing supply in East Wirral and the borough’s ability to achieve net zero targets
- the current situation regarding empty properties in Wirral and the corresponding potential to meet future housing need in the borough.