On track to meet tough housing targets

New figures, just released by Harborough District Council, show in the last six months, since 1 April 2015, the district has already seen 311 properties built – well ahead of the target for this stage in the year.   

The objectively assessed housing requirement for the Harborough district is 475 properties built per year – ie. by April 2016.

This represents another positive step forward in meeting Government targets to ensure housing numbers built are meeting housing need.

Last year, 496 homes were completed in the Harborough district.

To encourage the supply of housing nationally, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires all local authorities to have a ‘five year housing land supply’ which identifies sites that can be developed within a five year period.

The Government has made clear to local authorities the need to have a ‘five year housing land supply’ in place or risk housing developments being imposed upon them in areas which may fall outside sites agreed in approved planning policy documents such as the Core Strategy or Local Plan.

The latest figures show that the Harborough district currently has a 4.36 year supply of housing sites against its objectively assessed housing requirement of 475 dwellings per year.  This represents a similar position to the previous figure of 4.45 years calculated at September 2014.

Councillor Phil King, Harborough District Council’s portfolio holder for planning said: “It is positive that already 311 properties have been built this year which means we are well on course to meet, if not improve upon, our objectively assessed target of 475 homes per year by next April.

Cllr King added: “Whilst, I am really pleased that the Council is moving in the right direction with housing supply, this Council will need to continue to take difficult decisions on applications for housing development. We must do that, so that we can maintain a five year supply of housing, and get back full control of our local planning policy and determining where houses are built."

More details regarding the 5 year housing land supply can be found on the council’s website here