Local Development Framework consultation

Q. What is the Local Development Framework (or LDF for short)?

A. The LDF is a "portfolio" of documents that together form the development plan for Rotherham. It will guide future investment and help the Council determine planning proposals. The Core Strategy is the key document of the LDF. It will set out the broad planning framework for the Borough to 2027 by choosing the towns and settlements for new development. The task for the Core Strategy is to identify the most sustainable and least environmentally damaging locations for this development. The LDF will progressively replace Rotherham's existing Unitary Development Plan (UDP) by preparation, consultation, and then adoption, of a number of documents.

The Sites and Policies document identifies the sites allocated for all types of development and the detailed policies that will be used when determining planning applications in the future.

Q. What is the Draft Core Strategy and Sites and Policies consultation all about?

A. The two key parts of the LDF are the Core Strategy and a supporting Sites and Policies document.

Draft Core Strategy

The Draft Core Strategy sets the vision, objectives and strategic policies for the Borough up to 2027. The Core Strategy sets out, in broad terms, where new homes and jobs should be provided in the Borough. In doing so it sets targets for new housing and employment land for each of the Borough's settlements.

The target for any given settlement depends on its position in the Core Strategy's 'settlement hierarchy'. This position is influenced by, amongst other factors, its relative size, role, availability of services and access to public transport and employment.

All other LDF documents must conform with the Core Strategy.

Sites and Policies Issues and Options

The role of the Sites and Policies document is to identify specific sites ("site allocations") for each settlement to meet the Core Strategy targets, mainly for new housing and employment land. In doing so, it will define the precise policy boundary for Rotherham's Green Belt. It also will include policies to guide determination of planning applications and implementation of the site allocations. These decisions will be informed be a series of environmental designations, such as local nature conservation sites.

This consultation is seeking your views on:

• options for the proposed "site allocations" (possible development sites) for new homes and jobs and other uses - including the Council's preferred sites;
• any other sites you might wish to put forward as suitable for new homes and jobs;
• the proposed environmental designations used to influence planning decisions; and
• suggestions for development management policies.

It is important that the Sites and Policies Issues and Options should be read in conjunction with the Draft Core Strategy. Decisions on the broader strategy for new development in the Borough made by the Core Strategy cannot be changed later by the Sites and Policies Document. So if you have comments on the broader strategy, vision and objectives for the Borough please respond to the Draft Core Strategy consultation

Q. Why do we need so much new housing?

A. The number of houses needed has generally increased over past years. This has been for two main reasons; firstly because of increases in population, whether this was because of birth rates or people living longer, or a combination of the two or because of immigration. Secondly due to changes in the size of households; as the number of people in the average household decreases, even if the population stays the same, the number of households will increase.

House prices have increased much more quickly than earnings over the last decade or so, even when the recent falls in house prices, due to the recession, are taken into account. The supply of new houses, compared to demand is one of the most important factors determining the price of housing. Building enough new homes, to meet increasing demand, is key to improving the overall affordability of housing in Rotherham's communities.

Many prospective house buyers are currently finding it difficult to access credit, and this has led to recent falls in house prices. However, as the number of households in the Borough is projected to continue rising and the underlying requirement for new homes still exists their are many households that require a new home but cannot afford it or acquire a mortgage at the moment.

Q. How have you chosen potential sites to develop?

A. We have carried out a comprehensive survey of the Borough looking at sites within and on the edge of our towns and larger villages. Over 700 sites have been assessed for development for different uses, mostly as sites for housing and employment. Sites suggested by developers and landowners have been assessed alongside sites we already knew about from previous studies.

Q. Why have you chosen Bassingthorpe Farm for major new development?

A. The spatial strategy proposed in the Draft Core Strategy (Policy CS1) focuses most new development in the main urban area of Rotherham Urban Area, the principal settlements and nodes on key public transport corridors, making best use of existing infrastructure, services and facilities and reducing the need to travel.

We think that Bassingthorpe Farm represents the most sustainable location for an urban extension to the town centre. It is close to the existing infrastructure, transport hub and services provided by Rotherham town centre. On balance, we felt that Bassingthorpe Farm would be more sustainable in the long term than a similar sized urban extension elsewhere in the Borough or indeed a series of smaller expansions into the Green Belt around all other smaller towns and settlements.

More information can be found by looking at 'Fact Sheet Number 1: How have we decided where new development should go?' and 'Fact Sheet Number 4: Why do we need to build on land at Bassingthorpe Farm?' available from the Forward Planning pages of the RMBC website.

Q. Why aren't you building on old industrial sites?

A. A Employment Land Review was undertaken in 2010 to look again at how our economy might change, how much land we might need for new economic development and also to look at how suitable sites are for future employment use. We have looked at redundant industrial sites and factories to see if they can be used for new housing. However, not all industrial sites are suitable for housing; for example, many are located next to remaining industry or are sites that may be vulnerable to flood risk. Brownfield land is often contaminated which makes its viability for development more sensitive to market fluctuations; a situation made worse by the current downturn. We also need to meet future employment needs through the identification of 230 hectares of land for industry and businesses, some of which will be brownfield sites. Currently however we have only identified sites to meet part of this need; a further 60 hectares of land needs to be found for new economic development.

More information can be found by looking at 'Fact Sheet Number 3: How much land for employment do we need?' available from the Forward Planning pages of the RMBC website.

Q. What about schools, shops and roads etc?

A. The Local Development Framework will look at where new facilities and infrastructure such as schools, shops and roads are required and how they will be provided; either by developer contributions or public finance.

Q. What about flooding?

A. Maps have been prepared telling us levels of flood risk across the Borough, this helps us to avoid those areas of unacceptable risk. A further Strategic Flood Risk Assessment has been produced for Rotherham town centre and the surrounding area as part of a Flood Risk Toolkit. This is intended to help address flood risk issues whilst enabling development at the heart of Rotherham's urban area.

Q. What about wildlife and the environment?

A. Work has been carried out to check potential development sites for plant and animal interest. This has included checks against data sets of sites of local, regional and national biodiversity importance. Measures will be taken to protect important species and habitats in the Borough through Rotherham's Draft Core Strategy (Policy CS24) and Sites & Policies document, as well as the implementation of national policy and legislation on biodiversity.

Q. What about changes in the landscape and views?

A. A study has been produced that identifies particular landscape charecter areas within the whole of the Borough and the key characteristics present. It also provides a more detailed consideration of the landscape sensitivity and landscape capacity of the key potential urban extensions/urban expansion areas.

Q. Who will be building the houses?

A. Most of the houses would be built by private developers. The Council will continue to require private house builders to provide a proportion of these as affordable housing. We currently seek a contribution of 25% affordable housing on developments above a certain size; a policy that we are seeking to continue in the Draft Core Strategy (Policy CS16). In addition the Council now has a programme of building new council houses, although the number of these will small in comparison to the overall number of new dwellings.

Q. The last consultation on the LDF included a target of 1,160 new homes per year which has now fallen to 850 - what has changed?

A. It is expected that the Localism Bill, which is currently going through parliament, will confirm the government's decision to abolish regional strategies which imposed housing targets on local authorities. It will then be up to individual local authorities to decide their own local target, based on the best available evidence of local needs. When regional strategies are formally abolished we will be able to submit our final version of the Core Strategy to government for independent examination.

Q. How did the council decide that Rotherham's housing target for the plan period should be 850 new homes per year?

A. A wide range of evidence and methodologies were considered and, in the absence of any strong evidence to the contrary, a target close to the official housing projections was chosen(1). These projections factor in the expected rise in population through natural change (i.e. excess of births over deaths) and migration flows (internal and international), plus changes in household sizes. The target is 27% lower than previously and it is considered by the council that this will allow for a more sustainable level of growth for the Borough whilst providing for local need and help address the current lack of affordable housing provision.

(1) Produced by the Department for Communities and Local Government, based on Office for National Statistics population projections. More information can be found by looking at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=997

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/2033household1110

'Fact Sheet Number 2: How have we set a local housing target?' available from the Forward Planning pages of the RMBC website.

Q. Is it really "local" housing need or is this number of homes required to accommodate immigrants from overseas?

A. Official population projections produced independently by the Office for National Statistics predict that Rotherham's population will increase by 21,000 between 2010 and 2027 which, with a continuing trend for smaller household sizes, is the main driver in determining the local housing need. The majority of this increase is predicted to be through natural change, i.e. excess of births over deaths. Obviously the council has no control over the level of international migration but for Rotherham it is forecast that just 3,200 (15% or less than 200 people per year) of this increase will be accounted for by overseas migrants.

Q. Is Rotherham having to build new homes to accommodate population "overspill" from Sheffield?

A. Internal migration, i.e. from other parts of the UK, is predicted to account for around 28% (or 6,000 people) of the projected population increase in Rotherham to the end of the plan period (2027). A breakdown by area of the UK is not provided by the Office for National Statistics but historic data for the five years between 2004 and 2009 estimated a net inflow of 2,850 people from Sheffield into Rotherham. Given the close geographical and economic ties between the two areas there will always be strong cross-border flows but there is no specific element in Rotherham's housing target to satisfy any excess housing need in Sheffield.

Q. Why don't we take the Council's housing waiting list when working out the housing target?

A. The purpose of the Local development framework in relation to housing is to ensure that enough suitable housing land is available to meet overall need, not just the Council's housing waiting list. The target is based on the governments official projections of the number of new households in the Borough over the plan period.

The size of the Council's housing waiting list is an important indicator that more affordable housing is needed and although the majority of the housing will be built by private house builders for sale at market rates, a proportion of this will be handed over for use as affordable housing. The Council is also currently building some new Council Houses and hopes to build more, although this will only be a relatively small proportion of the total number of houses built. The affordable houses provided by house builders should contribute to easing the demand for council housing over time.

There are nearly 25,920 people on the Council's housing waiting list, but not all of these require a new house e.g. some people have their name down for more than on area. Some people on the list already live in a council house and if they were to move into a different house, their current house would become available.

Q. The new homes target will still require some release of land in the Green Belt - why do we not restrict building of new homes to sites outside the Green Belt?

A. Our sites survey and analysis showed that we simply do not have enough brownfield land or other land within the urban area for the amount of new housing required to meet our target. As a consequence, we need to identify Green Belt land where urban extensions could be considered. We will however prioritise the development of brownfield land before release of Green Belt. The amount of Green Belt land that may be required will depend on the final selection of sites which are being consulted upon, but is likely to be around 300 hectares (1.5%) of the total Green Belt land in the borough.

More information can be found by looking at 'Fact Sheet Number 5: How are we reviewing the Green Belt?' available from the Forward Planning pages of the RMBC website.

Q. What do you mean by "brownfield", "greenfield" and "Green Belt"?

A. These are terms we use to refer to either the physical characteristics of a piece of land or its status in the planning system.

"Brownfield" refers to a piece of land that has been previously developed, i.e. a vacant factory site. These sites are normally, but not exclusively, in urban areas and are characterised by vacant buildings, demolished and cleared buildings, vacant lots with hard standing areas etc.

"Greenfield" refers to land that is undeveloped i.e. a playing field. These sites are characterised by open fields, greenspace within an urban area, a school playing field, or any open land that has not had any significant buildings on it before. In certain circumstances, a brownfield site that has been left over a number of years and which nature has reclaimed can be classed as "naturally regenerated" and become a greenfield site.

In contrast to the above, "Green Belt" is a planning policy designation contained in the development plan for an area. Green Belt designation is normally given to an area of open land where strict planning controls apply in order to prevent the further growth of a large built-up area, prevent neighbouring towns from merging or preserve the special character of a town. Individual pieces of land in the Green Belt can be either greenfield or brownfield. The physical characteristics of a site are not the deciding factor - it is the policy designation in the plan that matters. It is quite possible to have a "brownfield" site in the Green Belt, for example a redundant colliery in the countryside some distance away from an urban area.

Q. Could the council not look at bringing some "long-term" vacant properties back into use?

A. All areas will have properties that have been empty for some time, for a variety of reasons. Indeed, a small percentage of vacant properties is desirable to allow flexibility in the local housing market. Looking at the number and percentage of dwellings in Rotherham that have been "long-term" vacant shows that in 2008 there were 1,499 or 1.4% of the total stock. This is in-line with the average for England and well below the regional average (1.8%). This suggests that long-term vacancy numbers are not a particular problem for Rotherham and therefore the potential opportunities to contribute to reducing housing need by using vacant properties are limited.

Q. Why have some areas of back garden been identified as potential housing sites?

A.The areas that we looked at as potential housing sites were identified from survey work and several existing sources of information. One of these sources was a piece of work previously carried out by the Council, called the Urban Potential Study. This study looked at all possible sources of new housing land in the built up areas of the Borough. The study was carried out under guidance produced by the Government which laid out in detail the types of sites that Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) should be looking at. Areas which are made up of parts of large back gardens which could be grouped together, to form a larger site, were one of the types of areas that the guidance told LPAs to look at.
Although we have looked at these areas, they do present problems that would make them difficult to develop. Each of these areas is owned by many different people and one or more residential properties would usually need to be acquired to allow access. Because of this, we regard them as highly unlikely to ever be available for development and our assessment of these sites reflects this.

Q. What happens next?

A. Nothing has been decided yet - we have collected a lot of evidence and have tried to present it in a way that will let people have their say before we make any decisions. We will consider all the comments we receive on the consultation. We will then publish a feedback report on the consultation and use this to inform our drafting of the final version of the Core Strategy to be submitted to Government.

We will also be carrying out further local consultation on "preferred options" for potential site allocations in each community to refine the Sites and Policies document and Proposals Map. This consultation will focus on the detail of which sites are most suitable for development in each community and allow communities to have another say about sites to be developed before the Plan is finalised.

Where can I find out more?

Phone: 01709 823869
Fax: 01709 823865
Minicom: 01709 823536

Web: www.rotherham.gov.uk/forwardplanning

Email: forward.planning@rotherham.gov.uk