Local Plan Main Modifications Consultation

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Policy SP16

To meet housing needs over the plan period from 2023 to 2040, provision will be made for at least 5253 new homes and associated infrastructure. This will be phased in a stepped trajectory as follows: [added]

• At least 180 new homes per year in the first five years of the Plan period (2023-2028) [added]
• At least 363 new homes per year for the remainder of the Plan period (2028-2040) [added]

The Council will work with Partners and landowners to deliver South Tyneside’s overall housing requirement of 5253 net additional dwellings [removed] and maintain a rolling five-year land supply. This will be achieved by:

1. Allocating sites to deliver at least 3498 [removed] 3439 [added] new homes;
2. Making provision for the delivery of at least 263 [removed] 465 [added] new homes within the designated East Boldon Neighbourhood Forum Area;
3. Making provision for the delivery of at least 71 new homes within the designated Whitburn Village Neighbourhood Forum Area;
4. The development of windfall sites;
5. The development of small sites;
6. Encouraging conversion and change of use of properties;
7. Maintaining a five year land supply;
8. Assessing the rate of housing delivery and supply through the annual monitoring process, with performance being assessed against the housing trajectory;
9. Introducing a range of contingency measures where the supply or delivery is projected to fall below the housing requirements.

Justified

Effective

Consistent with national policy

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Policy SP16: Supporting text

As identified in Policy SP2, and in line with the NPPF, the Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) has identified an overall housing requirement for the Plan period (1st April 2023 to 31st March 2040) of 309 dwellings per annum.  This produces an overall minimum housing requirement of 5,253 new homes. Policy SP16 seeks to ensure that the housing need for the borough is met.

A stepped trajectory is being adopted, with a lower rate of housing delivery for the first five years of the Plan period, before a step up in delivery over the remainder of the Plan period. This will support the delivery of the Plan’s spatial strategy including larger strategic site allocations that have required Green Belt alterations and sites that require more complex mitigation. A stepped trajectory also reflects the fact that housing supply has been constrained in the early years of the Plan period. [added]

Housing Supply

There are several sources of housing supply that can contribute to meeting the housing need:

Completions and Commitments

The Plan base date is April 2023 for housing completions and commitments (planning permissions). A proportion of the new houses the borough needs are already committed and are either under construction or have planning permission but have not yet started on site.

Lapse Rate

It is possible that some of these commitments will not come forward during the Plan period for a variety of reasons such as abnormal costs (e.g. contamination) or a lack of house builder interest. Non-delivery of some of these commitments could affect the Plan’s ability to meet the identified housing need. The Plan accounts for a lapse rate of 10% for commitments on site which are not yet under construction.

Projected Demolitions/Loss

South Tyneside has previously experienced relatively high levels of demolitions because of housing stock clearance and regeneration. There are, however, no further large-scale demolitions anticipated which can be planned for.  Similar to windfall sites, the nature of demolitions and net losses to housing stock can be unpredictable. However, it is appropriate to account for a nominal loss attributable to demolitions going forwards as they can unexpectedly come forward through the planning process. As plans for demolitions within the next two years are largely known through discussions with the Council’s Housing Strategy team, it is considered appropriate to account for unknown demolitions from year 3 onwards.

As there are no plans to carry out any further major clearance, for the remainder of the plan period, an allowance of 11 [removed] 7 [added] demolitions per year from year 3 are included, this being the historic average (when excluding the large‐scale demolitions as part of council renewal programmes).

Windfalls

Over the past five years, there have been an average of 113 windfall dwellings delivered each year. However, given the progression of the Local Plan and the thoroughness of the SHLAA assessment, it would be unreasonable to assume that these levels of windfall delivery will continue. The SHLAA accounts for a windfall rate of 37 dwellings per year from year 6 onwards.

Browfield Register

The Brownfield register identifies sites which are less than 5 dwellings. These are expected to be delivered during the Plan period.

Residual Housing Requirement

Taking the sources of supply set out above into account, Table 2 sets out the calculation used to determine how many houses the Council must plan for and allocate specific housing sites across the borough. This equates to a residual housing requirement target of 3443 [removed] 3439 [added] (Table 2).

Table 2 Residual Housing Requirement

Housing Allocations Supply

The Plan needs to allocate sites to accommodate at least 3443 [removed] 3439 [added] new homes during the plan period. Chapter 5 identifies Housing Allocations that would accommodate 3498 [removed] up to 3634 [added] new dwelling during the period.

Housing Delivery

The Council must maintain a sufficient supply of housing land over the Plan period to ensure the delivery of the overall housing requirement as outlined in Policy SP16 and maintain a rolling five-year supply of deliverable housing sites, including appropriate buffers. A housing trajectory (updated to April 2025) is shown in Appendix 6. [added]

It is anticipated that housing sites will be delivered in accordance with the housing trajectory shown in Figure 2. Housing trajectories are a planning tool designed to illustrate the expected rate of housing delivery across the Plan period. To prepare the housing trajectory, the Council has estimated the projected build out rates for all existing housing commitments and allocated sites. It is important to emphasise that the housing trajectories are not intended to produce perfect forecasts of the future but do provide as good an understanding as possible of the prospects for delivery.

If it becomes apparent that a five-year deliverable supply cannot be evidenced or that housing delivery is falling below the thresholds prescribed by the Housing Delivery Test over a rolling three year period, the Council will implement remedial action(s) to address any shortfalls.  Depending upon the scale and nature of either under supply or under delivery, actions may include:

• Formally implementing those measures as required by the Housing Delivery Test
• Drawing upon more up to date supply information from the SHLAA, Brownfield Register and Employment Land Review to identify additional housing sites that are consistent with the Plan’s policies
• A partial and early review of the Plan to release additional land for new homes.  This may include further consideration of releasing additional land from the Green Belt, should exceptional circumstances be met.

Figure 2 Housing Trajectory

[removed]

[added]

Neighbourhood Plans Housing Requirement

The NPPF states that within the overall requirement, strategic policies should also set out a housing requirement for designated neighbourhood areas which reflects the overall strategy for the pattern and scale of development and any relevant allocations. The NPPF notes that, where it is not possible to provide a requirement figure for a neighbourhood area, an indicative figure can be provided if requested by the neighbourhood planning body.

Justified

Effective