Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

1.1       To provide an overview of the Council’s Housing Land Availability Summary Report for the 2020/21 monitoring period.

The report presents the outcomes of annual housing land monitoring and provides a snapshot of the amount of land available for new residential development as of 1 April 2020. It will be supported by an online map portal showing the status of all existing housing monitor sites. The map portal will also spatially reflect key information contained within the tables of the report.

2.0       Recommendation

2.1       The Committee is asked to note the outcomes of the annual Housing Monitor report for 2020/21 contained here and the intention to publish this summary document and accompanying online map portal on the Council’s website.

3.0       Main Report

            Background

3.1       Members are reminded that the Planning Act (NI) 2011 requires the Council to make an annual report to the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) outlining the extent to which the objectives set out in the Local Development Plan (LDP) are being achieved. As the Council are currently preparing the first new LDP for Belfast under this new legislation, the production of Annual Monitoring Reports has not yet commenced. Instead, annual Housing Land Availability Monitor reports (referred to as the ‘Housing Monitor’ reports) are being prepared by the Council until the new LDP is adopted.

3.2       Members will be aware that the draft Plan Strategy, the first formal stage of the Belfast LDP, was subject to Independent Examination between November 2020 and March 2021. Although the Council generally aim to publish the Housing Land Availability Summary Report for the previous monitoring period in the Autumn each year, the 2020/21 Report was prepared subsequent to the Independent Examination. The publication of the report was therefore delayed to avoid the introduction of new evidence in advance of the Independent Examination report being forwarded to the Council. The Council received the ‘Independent Examination Report of Belfast City Council’s Local Development Plan: Plan Strategy’ on 4th February 2022.

3.3       While the Housing Land Availability Summary Report for the 2020/21 monitoring period is being brought to Committee at this late stage, work has commenced on the Housing Land Availability Summary Report for the 2021/22 monitoring period which will be brought to Committee in late summer for publication in the Autumn 2022.

Housing Land Availability Reports

3.4       The primary purpose of the Housing Monitor is to inform the formulation of the Council’s new LDP. However, it will also help the Council identify where a shortfall in potential land supply might exist and can inform house-builders on the availability of land that may be suitable for housing.

3.5       The Housing Land Availability Summary Report presents the headline figures from a register of potential housing land maintained by the Council, based on current planning policy designations and planning permissions. This provides a snapshot of the amount of land available for new homes and capacity for future housing units as of 1st April 2020, as well as providing the net gains in housing units for the 2020/21 period. This differs from the new dwelling completion statistics published routinely by central Government which only provide a total for new build homes, without accounting for units lost as a result of redevelopment.

3.6       This information is summarised within the report in relation to:

·          Each settlement within the District, including settlement areas in the case of Belfast City;

·          Whether land falls within the existing urban footprint (the continuous built-up area of the settlement) or is classified as greenfield land; and

·          The type of land use zoning (i.e. land zoned for housing or land zoned for mixed use development) or all other land.

3.7       The report will be supported by the online map portal showing the status of all existing housing monitor sites, on the Development Plan and Policy part of the Council website.

3.8       During the 2020/21 monitoring year 603 units were completed on 14.2ha of land across the District. 371.2ha of land remains, with potential capacity for 21,680 residential units. This is based on deliverable planning approvals and land allocated within the development plan, but doesn’t include other potential sites that may be suitable for residential development.

3.9       The total number of dwellings completed in the district has fallen by 13.6% from 698 in 2019/20 to 603 in the current monitor year. The proportion of dwellings completed within the Urban Footprint is recorded at 81.6% and, as of 1 April 2021, 36.1% of the remaining potential available for future dwellings is on land zoned for housing or mixed use development.

3.10     It is emphasised that the monitor represents a register of housing land based on policy designations and planning permissions, rather than an accurate picture of all potentially viable housing land. It should also be noted that this year’s report is based on data for the period thus far impacted by the Covid-19 public health emergency. The full implications of the Coronavirus pandemic are likely to be reflected in subsequent reports.

3.11     Finance and Resource Implications

            There are no resource implications associated with this report.

3.12      Asset and Other Implications

            None noted.

3.13      Equality or Good Relations Implications/

            Rural Needs Assessment

            The Housing Monitor report presents factual information and makes no recommendations relating to the future allocation of land for housing. There are therefore no relevant equality or good relations implications attached to this report.”

The Committee adopted the recommendations.