Housing requirement

As the population increases we need more housing. To manage this we need to monitor the amount of housing being built each year and the amount of land available to build homes (housing land supply).

The Core Strategy targets of 1,000 dwellings per year from 2006 to 2016, and then 1,450 dwellings per year from 2016 to 2021 were based on the requirements of the June 2006 Draft Regional Spatial Strategy.

The government now proposes to abolish these top-down regional housing targets under the Localism Act 2011. This came into force on 15 November 2011, and is expected to take effect from spring 2012.

The Draft Regional Spatial Strategy requirements were determined in a period of economic growth. When the financial markets collapsed there was a sudden and severe decrease in the number of people who were able to obtain a mortgage. This led to a huge reduction in the demand for new market housing, mainly affecting first time buyers, and had a knock-on effect on the need for new housing sites.

As a result Government Office agreed that a reduction in Plymouth’s short term housing targets was appropriate and the following revised net housing targets were agreed:

• 900 dwellings in 2008 to 2009
• 350 dwellings in 2009 to 2010
• 250 dwellings in 2010 to 2011

Revised housing targets 2012 to 2021

Property experts do not expect recovery of the housing market to start until late 2012 to 2013 at the earliest. We expect that the impact of the recession will be to delay the achievement of the Core Strategy targets for growth by about three to five years. This means that instead of delivering 17,250 dwellings by 2006 to 2021 we are more likely to see this level achieved by 2024 or later.

It is assumed that Government interventions will gradually improve mortgage availability. However it is unrealistic to expect house building rates to recover immediately. In the short term we expect house building to continue to be limited by current economic conditions. Therefore, to ensure that targets reflect current economic reality and to continue to meet the need to deliver 17,250 dwellings by 2024, we have revised our five year housebuilding target to 3,250 dwellings from 2012 to 2017, as follows:

• 350 dwellings in 2012 to 2013
• 450 dwellings in 2013 to 2014
• 620 dwellings in 2014 to 2015
• 800 dwellings in 2015 to 2016
• 1,030 dwellings in 2016 to 2017

These targets will be kept under continuous assessment and review. The Council has commissioned consultants to assess the future growth potential of the city. Part of this work will include a reassessment of Plymouth’s housing requirement. We expect to publish this evidence base report in February 2012.

This page of the annual monitoring report was last updated December 2011.