Why have we had a year’s delay?

In November 2022, the Secretary of State announced that he was planning to change two elements of Local Plans:

• They would no longer be required to deliver the centrally-dictated targets for the number of new houses.
• Councils would no longer be required to release areas of Green Belt for development solely to meet a housing target.

It was generally accepted that the changes to the regulations would be published in Spring 2023 with a new version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

So, in January 2023, Mole Valley Council asked the Inspector examining our new Local Plan to pause the examination until the new rules were published and proposed to modify the plan to remove all development sites proposed that were in the Green Belt in order to meet the promised new regulations.

Eventually In December 2023 the long-awaited regulations were published, but, without warning, the Government decided that they should apply only to Councils that had not made much progress with their new plans. Effectively Mole Valley and a dozen other councils have to stick to the old rules even though the Government had decided they were inappropriate.

Why is there such an impact on the Green Belt?

This cycle of preparing a new Local Plan was started under the previous Mole Valley administration led by the Conservatives and the self-styled “Ashtead Independents” in 2015.

The Government’s housing targets for Mole Valley were based on out-of-date population projections and were inflated by an affordability penalty, which is widely considered as unreasonable in London commuter areas since many residents work in London and benefit from higher salaries.

The large amount of Green Belt in the District meant that there were few other sites available for housing development. Moreover the area South of the Green Belt is unsuitable for major development due to noise from Gatwick airport and generally limited public transport.

In 2017 the Conservative/Independent administration invited developers to submit proposals for sites in the Green Belt that could be used for new housing.  By early 2019, they had prepared a draft Local Plan ready for consultation including some, but not all of the proposed Green Belt sites. However they decided to delay this public consultation until after the May 2019 elections.

In the May 2019 elections, the Liberal Democrats took control of Mole Valley Council and inherited the draft Plan. They immediately called on the Government to reduce the unrealistic housing target. After a few months’ consideration, they took an amended version of this plan to the initial (Regulation 18) consultation in early 2020. This included 2,990 proposed new houses in the Green Belt and attracted some 24,000 responses.

Based on this feedback, the Council undertook a more systematic review of the suitability of the proposed Green Belt sites. Combined with better use of brownfield sites within the existing built-up areas, the revised plan (Regulation 19) proposed undershooting the Government’s housing target and reduced the proposed housing in the Green Belt to 1,252 removing 25 Green Belt sites entirely from the original plan.

Why don’t we follow the advice of our MP and just start again?

Our Conservative MP and local Conservative councillors have been inconsistent in their approach to this local plan.

While they were in control of the Council, they invited developers to propose development sites in the Green Belt and oversaw identification of sites they deemed to be appropriate.

Once they were in opposition they took a different line:

• They refused to support the Council’s request to Government to reduce the unreasonable housing target;
• They opposed the Council’s decision to pause the examination of the plan in anticipation of the new regulations promised by the Government;
• Recently they have argued that the plan should be dropped and the process started anew - in direct conflict with the ruling by the Conservative Housing Minister that Mole Valley must proceed with this initiative without further delay.

Re-starting the entire Local Plan process would set the process back at least 3 or 4 years. During this period the District’s shortfall against its planned housing numbers would worsen, which means planning decisions and appeals would be weighted in favour of proposals for more housing – and against other issues such as protection of the Green Belt. As a result, this would lengthen the period in which developers would put forward inappropriate proposals. Last year, residents were relieved that the Appeal Inspectors dismissed an application for a Green Belt site on the edge of Leatherhead. A long period without an up-to-date plan would create a free-for-all for developers to make similar applications and not all would be lost on Appeal.

What else is affected by the Local Plan?

The Local Plan covers much more than just the number and location of new housing developments.

Other policies in the current draft include:

• Stronger policies on affordable housing to generate 1,088 new units for those struggling to afford market prices in this area;
• Requirement for social housing on key sites; “social” housing is at a lower price/rent than “affordable” housing which remains too expensive for many local households
• Stronger policies to tackle climate change, such as zero-carbon housing
• Better protection for heritage assets and to ensure developments are higher quality;
• Tougher policy on biodiversity, including a requirement for 20% net biodiversity gain on development sites, against the government requirement of 10%;
• Stronger infrastructure policies & more infrastructure allocations, such as equipped play areas & community spaces associated with larger developments.