Agenda item

Cllr Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning addressed the committee:

• The draft local plan was dedicated to the memory of Nicky Gavron. She was a leading Haringey and London politician whose career spanned 50 years from the 1970s. She was the first deputy Mayor of London following a successful career at Haringey Council. Nicky was a trail blazer committed to improving the built environment for families and access to outdoor space, widening participation in the arts and improving the environment. She led the way on policies to improve air quality and green spaces and access to play for children.

The following was noted during questions from the committee:

• Councillors wanted to hear from the lesser heard voices, and a previous engagement had succeeded particularly with young people and school aged children. Officers identified that there were some gaps and specifically outlined what those gaps were in the communications and engagement plan and would be seeking to address those. They were working on the detailed communications and engagement plan with specific and targeted strategies for several of the group's members had mentioned, including older people, younger people, women and families. Officers would look into the UN-Habitat ‘Her City’ and Young Families Toolkit initiatives. Officers were always looking to build upon best practise and learn what has worked elsewhere.
• Councillors highlighted that the plan was overdue, acknowledged by officers. There were a number of reasons for this which were picked up through the review of the planning service. It partly related to limited resources within the planning team, which had been partially addressed in the last 6 to 12 months. It also partly related to the fact that the team had done a lot of the evidence-base work in house; there was a significant cost saving for this but there was a time implication to that.
• In terms of responding to government changes to the planning system, officers had done well in the last 12 to 18 months in bringing in funding from the government to help deliver the plan at the lowest possible cost to the Council; they were awarded close to £230,000 from MHCLG. Funding had also been given to deliver a Green Belt review which was being led by the GLA. In terms of the plan itself, the government was bringing in a new planning framework towards the end of next year. The idea was that a lot of the standard policies would be stripped out of plans on things such as biodiversity net gain. Officers had deliberately developed the plan so it would be future proofed.
• Councillors suggested engaging with Tottenham Sixth Form College and a contact would be provided by Cllr Bevan.
• Councillors enquired about enhanced protection for trees. Officers acknowledged one of the shortcomings of the existing local plan was that it did not address trees in a satisfactory manner. Officers had comprehensively addressed that in the drafted local plan. There was a trees policy in the green and blue infrastructure section that had been drafted with extensive input from the Council's trees team plus looking at best practise from across London and elsewhere.
• Councillors enquired about climate adaptation and net zero. There were two specific chapters addressing the climate emergency, these set out a clear and prescribed route to delivering genuine net zero buildings with detailed policies and targets. There was an explicit encouragement for retrofit which was much stronger than the current approach. For all major proposals officers were asking applicants to demonstrate that from the start of the design process they considered the opportunity to retrofit.
• Councillors enquired further about government changes to the planning system. Officers explained the government wanted to see full coverage new style local plans and from 2027 every borough would be required to prepare a new style local plan, which was supposed to be shorter, more succinct and more focused on places and sites. The government would over time publish national development management policies; these would replace council’s individual development management policies. Thus, a big focus of the plan has been the neighbourhood section and when the next review of this plan comes forward there would be something already in place to build on rather than starting from scratch. Also housing targets were likely to continue to rise, and officers would need to evolve this local plan in line with new housing targets produced. National policy on green belt had also been reviewed which the local plan has adapted to.
• Councillors questioned how essential services would keep up with increased housing targets. One of the major pieces of evidence prepared to support the local plan was an infrastructure delivery plan. This looked to establish what the current gaps were in infrastructure, for example in provision of GP surgeries or dentists. Then it looked at what infrastructure would be needed to support the expected increase in population and then a strategy for addressing that. At some stage later this year, the team would create a live web based digital infrastructure delivery plan which would make it much easier for everyone to engage.
• Councillors enquired about enhancing local heritage. It was noted that the local plan should put a lot of importance on conservation areas and the local heritage.
• Councillors enquired about the affordable housing targets. Officers clarified that the Council's affordable housing requirements did not extend to just conventional build for sale homes or build to rent homes, this could include student accommodation and contributions from co living.
• In terms of the affordable housing policies, there were two targets. A 50% strategic target, which was consistent with the London Plan; that would be met through a variety of means including through the Council delivering affordable homes itself, through registered providers delivering affordable homes themselves, and also through our securing affordable homes through private schemes. The second target applied to private developments and in Haringey that was proposed to be 40%. That was consistent with the existing target in the current local plan and there were certain higher targets for publicly owned land or industrial land that was proposed to be converted to housing. Currently, the council’s adopted policy requires 60% low cost rent and 40% intermediate in most of the borough, but that was reversed in the east of the borough. Officers explained the new local plan was proposing to remove the reversal so that the same tenure mix applied to the entire borough and propose an enhanced 70/30 split. In terms of the 70/30 itself, the London Plan says there should 40% low cost rent, 30% intermediate and then the other 30% could be decided by the borough. It was clear from the team’s evidence that the need was overriding for low cost rent and social rent, hence why they had proposed to go for 70/30 and to be consistent with the London Plan.
• Members expressed the cultural significance of Rowan's bowling alley, with people coming from all over London.
• Members welcomed the wording of the warehouse living policy and hoped that it would be enough to safeguard the character of those developments.
• Members welcomed the policy in relation to public toilets and ensuring that these were inclusive, accessible and could be safely used.
• Officers were working closely with housing strategy colleagues around the need for different types of specialist housing. As and when there were more detailed evidence or strategies, officers were happy to integrate those from the local plan or refer to them elsewhere next to the local plan.
• Councillors were keen to support intergenerational housing.

RESOLVED

1) Consider all feedback received in respect of the New Local Plan First Steps Engagement consultation set out in Appendix A to this report;

2) Notes and comments on the Draft Local Plan consultation document attached as Appendix B to this report;

3) Recommends to Cabinet to approve for public consultation, in accordance with Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning Regulations (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, the Draft Local Plan consultation document attached as Appendix B to this report;

4) Recommends to Cabinet that it delegates authority to the Director of Planning & Building Standards to agree the final version of the Draft Local Plan consultation document, and other supporting material to be produced for consultation including the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning to the extent that any changes to the versions approved by Cabinet are not material changes and which could include changes to the text, layout and design of the Draft Local Plan consultation document and supporting documents and changes needed to clarify information or correct errors in the same.