Proposals for the delivery of 105,500 homes up to 2036 - 44,000 more than currently proposed in existing local plans for the region - are included in a joint spatial plan for the West of England, submitted last week for examination.

Four councils – Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol City, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire – are working together to produce the West of England Joint Spatial Plan (JSP), which is intended to set out a prospectus for growth to help the city-region meet its housing and transport needs up to 2036.

According to the submission draft of the document, the four authorities’ existing local plans made provision for around 61,500 new dwellings at April 2016, predominantly on previously developed land.

The plan says that, compared to the housing supply figure identified, "there are up to 44,000 additional dwellings to 2036 that need to be planned for through the JSP spatial strategy".

The document says that "an approach which focuses on increasing existing urban development opportunities and expansion will not be sufficient to meet the homes and job needs of the region over the next 20 years". 

"Additional new sustainable locations will be needed, which may include new innovative solutions such as garden villages or extensions," it says. 

The JSP also says that "technical work and transport modelling have shown that it is not possible to sustainably accommodate all the identified growth needs entirely outside the green belt".

Additional strategic sites identified in the JSP include:

• Around 1,500 homes at North Keynsham, within the Bath and North East Somerset Council area.
• Around 2,500 new homes at Whitchurch, also in Bath and North East Somerset.
• A 2,675-home garden village near Langford and Churchill in North Somerset.
• A 3,000-home garden village near Buckover in South Gloucestershire.
• Around 750 homes on land at Bath Road, Bristol.

According to a statement from the four councils, the JSP will now be examined by a planning inspector who will then submit a report back to the local authorities, possibly with proposed amendments.

If the inspector finds the plan sound, the four councils must then adopt the plan, giving it statutory authority. At that point , the statement said, "the approved JSP would sit above and guide the review of the councils’ own local plans".

The councils hope to adopt the plan by early 2019.

The joint spatial plan is part of an emerging housing delivery deal between the four councils and the government. An outline interim deal was agreed in March, with the full deal to be agreed later in the year.

Source: Planning Resource