Kirklees Council has outlined how it will address the district’s housing supply shortfall after failing to meet government requirements last year.
The national policy says that local authorities must have enough land suitable for accommodating five years’ worth of housing growth to meet local needs. For the first time since Kirklees’ Local Plan was adopted in 2019, the figure has dropped below this, with Kirklees having a housing land supply of 3.96 years.
This is part of the reason a full-scale review of Kirklees’ Local Plan was approved in November.
Kirklees Council has since shared how it will counteract the housing shortage and achieve its goal of delivering 1,730 new homes each year from now until 2031. Some of the measures are set out in the ‘Interim Housing Position Statement to Boost Supply’ which details how the shortfall will be addressed and housing numbers boosted.
Part of this will see greater pressure placed on the council to approve planning applications and some of the Local Plan’s policies being considered “outdated”. Despite this, the council is adamant that applications do not have a foregone conclusion and planning considerations like highways, design and engineering, will remain relevant to the process.
In addition, safeguarded land could be released for housing development, prompting concern among some councillors previously. However, the council has maintained that it is committed to delivering sustainable, high-quality, well-designed developments as part of meeting the housing goals.
Cllr Graham Turner, Cabinet Member for Finance and Regeneration, said: “We absolutely must honour our commitment to creating more quality housing for the people of Kirklees, and we are willing to take the necessary steps to do that.
“Local authorities up and down the country are struggling, and we’re facing a housing shortage not just in Kirklees but across the UK. This document will help us meet our targets for housing growth, whilst still maintaining high standards for developments, and it’ll shape the future of Kirklees.”
Other measures designed to make Kirklees’ planning process more efficient include a more streamlined planning process being introduced in February. This will see council officers given greater responsibility for deciding applications and the number of committees dropped from three to two.
