Devolved Powers
Report to the Communities Secretary and to the Minister of Housing and Planning – Local Plans Expert Group
This is a 56 page report with a lot of detail on the problems of drawing up a Local Plan.
One paragraph makes an interesting point: how can a devolved area set extra housing targets if one or more of the subsidiary councils have not completed their Local Plans?
In many cases Inspectors add thousands of houses to suggested totals – which completely skews LEP extra numbers.
“S21. From the outset of our appointment, LPEG has been interested in the potential for voluntary joint planning provided by the current round of bids for devolved powers, which cover a large majority of the country.
Devolution provides the best opportunity for bottom-up joint planning but bids tend to focus on economic growth rather than housing and we have strongly recommended to Government that it attatches precise conditions to any successful devolution bid, requiring a commitment to plan positively to meet objectively assessed housing needs and a commitment to produce a plan for the combined area.
We further recommend that individual authorities within a combined authority area should receive sign off from the combined authority that their emerging plan addresses the Duty to Cooperate before their plan can progress.”
East Devon Watch 