Local ward councillors Alan, Jill and Hamish received this E-mail recently about the critically important topic of meeting local housing needs and issues surrounding its supply.

Housing Supply

Thank you for your e mail of 30 May 2013 regarding the above.

The Council’s Development Plan sets out policies and proposals to ensure it will meet housing targets set by the London Plan (currently a minimum of 210 additional homes per annum for Sutton) as well as policies specifying the mix of housing needed and the split between private market units and affordable housing.

The Council seeks to ensure that 50% of all new housing built in the borough is affordable to those people who find it difficult to access market housing. Each year, the council is also required by the government to produce a document setting out a 5 year supply of sites that are considered available for housing within the next 5 years. This comprises sites which already have planning permission, but where development has not yet commenced, or sites that have been identified as being suitable (and are likely to come forward) for development within that period.

Despite the fact that the number of homes built each year in the borough has almost exceeded the targets set for the borough, the Council has no control over whether a developer chooses to develop a site. The choice to bring forward sites for development is affected by the developer’s view on the viability of the development and whether there are potential buyers with access to sufficient funds to acquire those properties. Therefore whilst the council can play its part in ensuring sufficient sites are made available it cannot ensure that they are actually built.

I hope this explains the council’s planning role in relation to the provision of new housing.

Regards

Jay Judge

Interim Executive Head of Planning & Transportation, London Borough of Sutton

24 Denmark Road, Carshalton Surrey  SM5 2JG

Tel: 0208 770 6208