A countryside charity has joined calls for the Isle of Wight Council to use more up-to-date data in its latest housing strategy.
The Isle of Wight branch of CPRE — The Countryside Charity (previously the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) is throwing its weight behind a change in the figures.
On Wednesday, the council is looking to approve the Island Planning Strategy (IPS) which will set housing targets and planning policies developers and builders will have to stick to for the next 15 years. However, an argument that has erupted recently is over the use of 2014 housing predictions from the Office of National Statistics.
The draft plan, in its current form, argues the Island should only build 479 homes a year — compared to the government-set target of 730 — but campaigners wish to see it shrunk even further to around 70.
Not all councillors agree with all aspects of the plan and the council says it may not be perfect but it gives the council the best opportunity to get a sound strategy in place as quickly as possible.
Cabinet member Councillor Chris Jarman is arguing for a change in the figures, due to what he calls outdated data, saying the council should use the recently published 2021 census figures and projections instead of 2014 housing predictions.
In a motion to full council, Cllr Jarman is asking the housing need to be recalculated and particular emphasis put on the need for housing, which is ‘affordable to Islanders’.
Ian Wellby, CPRE trustee, said they have long-argued the government-imposed housing targets are ill-suited to the Island’s unique housing market. He said, in 2019, CPRE commissioned independent research which showed the target that formed the basis of the draft IPS was based on flawed statistics and methodology — including the use of out-of-date projections.
Mr Wellby said:
“Other serious flaws in the methodology include failing to account for the fact that Island housing demand does not stem from local demand — more people die here than are born on the Island — but rather from being a uniquely attractive area to move to.”
Isle of Wight Council officers argue the government expects the 2014 projections to be used for assessing local need and the current approach the council is taking has a greater likelihood of success when it is scrutinised by the Planning Inspectorate.
The future of the draft IPS will be decided on Wednesday 5th October.
“Other serious flaws in the methodology include failing to account for the fact that Island housing demand does not stem from local demand — more people die here than are born on the Island — but rather from being a uniquely attractive area to move to.”
Tough.
We all live in the same country and can live wherever we like. If, so called, “real” islanders don’t like it they know what they can do.
Houses should be build only on parcels which are brownfield right now*. How many of them? No specific number but your typical urbanisation best practices will naturally limit how many houses you can put and how close to each other. If you want to pack more households, develop a mixed-housing development. Easy.
Putting some random numbers only risks that “to fill the quota” we will have to build on a greenfield, just to match numbers.
*so no one is tempted post-factum to mark half the island as brownfield suddenly.
And who has just put in a planning application for 163 houses on farmland ? (Whose family were once champions of the rural life)
Lizzy the Truss said to Nick Robinson on Radio 4 this morning that ‘she thinks how homes are built are wrong and rather than centrally directed; wants to remove Top Down Housing Targets; wants development with local consent rather than centrally driven targets.
I suppose it’ll now come down to what is defined by “local consent”.
By village, by town or by county. I wonder if our Planners are awake to any of this as they push on with their Island Plan housing shambles.
St Mary’s can’t cope now, why build more houses.
Use what’s already available.
So many empty properties on the Island sitting idle.