Local Plan - New Accessible housing
Case reference FOI2022/00172
Published 16 March 2022
Request
I am writing to request the following information on your Local Plans for accessible housing.
1. What is your current Local Plan for new housing? Please provide its name and dates.
2. How many new homes are planned under your current Local Plan? Please provide a yearly breakdown (financial year).
3. Does your current Local Plan for new homes include a technical accessibility standard?
4. What are the technical accessibility standard(s) detailed in your current Local Plan for new homes?
5. How many new homes are planned under your current Local Plan to meet a technical accessibility standard? Please provide a yearly breakdown (financial year).
6. Under your current local plan, of the new homes planned to meet a technical accessibility standard, how many are planned to meet the requirements of: * Wheelchair design standard * Lifetime Homes Standard * M4(1) Category 1 * M4(2) Category 2 * M4(3) Category 3(A) * M4(3) Category 3(B)
7. How many homes planned to meet the above technical accessibility standards are council owned properties?
Response
1. What is your current Local Plan for new housing? Please provide its name and dates.
Guildford borough Local Plan: strategy and sites 2015-2034, adopted 25 April 2019 - Guildford Local Plan - Guildford Borough Council
2. How many new homes are planned under your current Local Plan? Please provide a yearly breakdown (financial year).
Please see Guildford borough Local Plan: strategy and sites 2015-2034 Appendix 1 - housing trajectory (see Appendix 1 attachment).
3. Does your current Local Plan for new homes include a technical accessibility standard?
Yes, Policy H1: Homes for all in the Guildford borough Local Plan: strategy and sites 2015-2034.
4. What are the technical accessibility standard(s) detailed in your current Local Plan for new homes?
Extract from Policy H1: Homes for all in the Guildford borough Local Plan: strategy and sites 2015-2034:
Accessible homes
(4) On residential development sites of 25 homes or more, 10% of new homes will be
required to meet Building Regulations M4 (2) category 2 standard (to be 'accessible
and adaptable dwellings'), and 5% of new homes will be required to meet Building
Regulations M4 (3) category 3 ('wheelchair user dwellings'), or any subsequent
legislation on making homes accessible and adaptable.
5. How many new homes are planned under your current Local Plan to meet a technical accessibility standard? Please provide a yearly breakdown (financial year).
The Council has planned for and allocated specific sites within the Local Plan which will provide housing, a percentage of which will need to meet the technical accessibility standards. A breakdown of the sources of housing supply over the plan period is shown in Table S2a (page 25) in the Local Plan: strategy and sites.
The table attached in Appendix 2 shows a housing trajectory for site allocations (2019) and highlights where there are under 25 homes, and therefore where the requirements of policy H1 (4) will not apply. Please note that this table comes with a caveat as not all these sites may come forward for development, be approved or be for the exact number of homes indicated. The table is an extract from a larger table in the Land Availability Assessment ('LAA') 2019 (the year the Local Plan was adopted). The Council does not accept liability for any factual inaccuracies or omissions within the LAA, and the information represents the best information available at that time. The table does not contain all the site allocations from the Local Plan, as some sites had gained planning permission before the Plan was adopted. There may also be discrepancy between the approximate number of homes that are shown in the Local Plan site allocations and the LAA 2019 figures. However, the figures provided in the Local Plan table (Appendix 1) do not provide the site specific yearly breakdown that you have requested.
The following sections have been removed from the original LAA (2019) table:
• non-allocated sites that may come forward (and are shown in the LAA trajectory)
• C3 outstanding permissions commenced
• C3 outstanding detailed permissions not commenced
• C3 outline permissions
• Student accommodation and care homes
These sections have been removed as the requirements of policy H1 (4) may not have been applicable at the time planning permission was granted, or that they did not apply to that specific type of development.
From the figures in the table you will be able to calculate the percentage of new homes that need to be accessible and adaptable dwellings (10%) or wheelchair user dwellings (5%) to be policy compliant. This figure is likely to be an underestimate as it does not take into account windfall or non-allocated sites of over 25 homes that may come forward during the plan period.
6. Under your current local plan, of the new homes planned to meet a technical accessibility standard, how many are planned to meet the requirements of:
• Wheelchair design standard
• Lifetime Homes Standard
• M4(1) Category 1
• M4(2) Category 2
• M4(3) Category 3(A)
• M4(3) Category 3(B)
The details of future planning applications are unknown.
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.