Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan - Alternative Sites & Focused Changes (Reg. 18)

A. Introduction and Background

A.1. South Norfolk Council is working with Broadland District Council and Norwich City Council to produce the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP), which identifies how many homes need to be built between 2018 and 2038 across the three Council areas. Within the overall housing requirement, the GNLP sets a target for a minimum of 1,200 homes on new allocations across 48 Village Clusters in South Norfolk. In accordance with this target, the South Norfolk Village Clusters Housing Allocations Plan (The Village Clusters Plan) aims to deliver sustainable growth within the villages of South Norfolk, in accordance with Government's national planning policies and guidance.

A.2. The Plan seeks to allocate a series of smaller sites, typically within the range of 12 to 50 homes, across the 48 Village Clusters, to accommodate at least 1,200 new homes. The Plan also defines the Settlement Limits for the villages within these clusters, making provision for further smaller sites and incorporating revisions to reflect development that has occurred, or has been permitted since the boundaries were last updated. The threshold of 12 dwellings for allocations is consistent with the GNLP and reflects the fact that sites smaller than this are less likely to achieve the required element of affordable housing.

A.3. The Council previously consulted on a Regulation 18 version of the Village Clusters Plan in summer 2021. Taking into account the responses to that consultation, plus the outputs of engagement with various technical consultees (including regulatory bodies and infrastructure providers) and the extensive evidence base that supports the Plan, the Council published the Regulation 19 version for comments between January and March 2023 (see https://southnorfolkandbroadland.oc2.uk/document/12). The Regulation 19 version of the Plan was the one which the Council intended to submit to the Secretary of State for Examination in Public and, ultimately, adopt as part of the Local Plan.

A.4. The following table summarises the total number of dwellings identified for allocation at Regulation 19 in January 2023.

Table 1: January 2023 Regulation 19 VCHAP Numbers

A.5. Following the close of the Regulation 19 publication period one of the preferred sites, VC ROC2 for 25 dwellings at Rockland St Mary, was no longer considered to be achievable as a suitable vehicular access cannot currently be delivered. Furthermore, discussions with technical consultees resulted in the loss 5 units from VC TAS1 at Tasburgh. As can be surmised from the table above, a loss of 30 units would mean the Village Clusters Plan would not deliver the minimum 1,200 dwellings required. As such the Council is now consulting on ways to address the loss of these units.

Next stages

A.6. Once the current consultation is completed, the responses will be analysed and a final selection of sites agreed for inclusion in the version of the Plan that the Council intends to submit for independent examination and subsequently adopt as part of its Local Plan. There will be a further opportunity to comment on the 'soundness' and legal compliance of the final choice of sites from this consultation when a Regulation 19 document of "Focused Changes" to the previous draft plan is published during 2024.

This consultation

A.7. The current consultation is under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. Comments can be submitted between Monday 11 December 2023 and 5pm on Monday 5 February 2024. Details on how to submit comments can be found on the Council's website at https://southnorfolkandbroadland.oc2.uk/. Further advice can be obtained using the following:

A.8. To ensure that the Village Clusters Plan meets its minimum requirements the Council is now consulting on a series of 13 sites which could replace the losses and potentially make a modest increase to the numbers in the VCHAP. These have been selected taking into account the three Plan Objectives set out in the January 2023 Regulation 19. The full Objectives can be seen in the January 2023 document available at https://southnorfolkandbroadland.oc2.uk/document/12. The Council is not proposing to make any changes to these objectives as part of this consultation.

A.9. With the exception of one site, all of the sites have previously been assessed and published as part of the earlier consultation stages. The exception is SN6000 at Barford which was promoted to the Council in response to the previous Regulation 19 publication of the draft plan. To identify sites for inclusion in this consultation the Council reviewed all previously preferred and shortlisted sites; Details of how these sites were selected are included in a Focussed Regulation 18 Site Selection paper, which is available as part of the Supporting Documents. The Council has also updated the Site Assessments for the sites included in this focused consultation, setting out the reason for their inclusion, and these updated assessments these are also published as part of the Supporting Documents.

A.10. It should be noted that this consultation only relates to the 13 sites detailed. The remainder of the January 2023 Regulation 19 document is (a) not part of this consultation and (b) will be taken forward to be submitted to the Secretary of State once decisions on the additional sites have been made. The Council has addressed the representations made at the Regulation 19 stage, and a summary of the representations and the Council's responses can be found in the December 2023 Statement of Consultation which is available in the Supporting Documents. The Council is also not seeking the submission of any additional sites at this stage.

A.11. This consultation asks three key questions:

• How big should the buffer be above 1,200 dwellings to ensure that this minimum number is delivered between now and 2038.
• Are the sites detailed in sections 1 to 11 suitable for allocation?
• Is there anything specific that should be taken into account when developing any of these sites, and which could form criteria in a site-specific policy for the site, if it is allocated?