Public consultation to begin on proposed modifications to Leeds Core Strategy Selective Review

Public consultation on proposed modifications to the Leeds Core Strategy Selective Review is set to start tomorrow.

Leeds City Council’s executive board today approved six weeks of consultation to run from Friday 17 May to Friday 28 June with the details and the opportunity to comment at www.leeds.gov.uk/cssr.

The modifications, which propose enhancements to a number of Core Strategy policies, have been put forward by independent government-appointed planning inspector Claire Sherratt DIP URP MRT following public hearing sessions which took place in February this year.

They involve minor changes to wording to make the Core Strategy more effective and more closely aligned to national planning policy. These relate to housebuilding standards, affordable housing levels, accessibility in new housing, providing electric vehicle charging infrastructure, sustainability, greenspace compliance and limiting the environmental impact of new housing in Leeds.

The inspector’s proposed modifications will not alter the overall new housing target for Leeds put forward in the review, which is proposed to be 51,952 new homes between 2017 and 2033. This would replace the existing Core Strategy target of 70,000 new homes between 2012 and 2028, with the levels of housing which have been delivered across the city since 2012 factored in to the new target to ensure fairness and that future new housing is carried out in a sustainable way.

Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Judith Blake said:

“The Core Strategy Selective Review is a vital piece of work for the future of the city, and hopefully this will be the final round of public consultation before we can get this process concluded and an updated Core Strategy in place.

“We’d like to hear the views of as many as possible so we get these revised policies adopted and in place to ensure all future development in Leeds is managed in a planned and sustainable way.”

All of the responses received in the consultation will be sent to the planning inspector who is expected to produce a final report to be considered by Leeds City Council’s executive board and then debated at a meeting of full council later this year.

Notes to editors:

Under the Core Strategy as adopted in 2014, the new housing target was set down as 70,000 new homes in Leeds between 2012 and 2028. As part of the Core Strategy Selective Review using the latest evidence and projected economic growth and population for Leeds, the proposed revised target is now 51,952 between 2017 and 2033.

Within the updated target, the Core Strategy will take into account the levels of new housing which have been delivered across the city since 2012 to ensure fairness and new housing being approved and carried out in a sustainable way.

Running alongside the Core Strategy Selective Review, the Site Allocations Plan for Leeds on the location of future new housing in the city up to 2023 is currently with government planning inspectors with their final report due shortly. An agreed and adopted Site Allocations Plan is critical to ensure that the council has control over its five-year housing land supply and can avoid speculative development in the city.

ENDS

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