Sir,

Letter published by The West Sussex Gazette, 8 August 2018

Preparation of Neighbourhood Plans is a major undertaking for communities, requiring of them substantial inputs of their precious time, effort and money.

In Arun District there are 15 communities with made Neighbourhood Plans, of which 13 are more than two years old.

Unfortunately for these communities, changes made by the Government to its new planning rules (revised NPPF, 24 July) have increased their vulnerability to developer-imposed development.

Under these new rules, should Arun District be unable to demonstrate a five year supply of housing going forward, or where the requirements of the new Housing Delivery Test have not been met their Neighbourhood Plans will be deemed out of date, because they are more than two years old and will in consequence carry little or no weight for decision takers.

Arun District has a newly adopted Local Plan, with a Government-imposed requirement for a minimum of 20,000 houses to be built over the plan-period to 2031.

The Inspector who examined and approved Arun’s local plan recognised that “there will be peaks and troughs in (housing) delivery and potentially periods when a 5 year supply may not be achieved”. And he advises that “in the medium to longer term there will be a need for non-strategic sites to contribute to making up any anticipated shortfall”.

‘Troughs’ in housing delivery are inevitable because housing delivery is dependent on the health of the economy, which continues to be in doubt, and developers will reduce build rates to maintain profits, and the Government continues to deny councils the means to compel developers to maintain build-rates at required levels.

When ‘troughs’ occur communities with Neighbourhood Plans that are more than two years old, will be targeted by developers and by the District Council when it has to find and allocate ‘non-strategic’ sites.

That communities should be penalized by the Government by having their Neighbourhood Plans, if more than two years old, overturned when developers reduce build-out rates, is inequitable and wrong – yet the MPs who’s Parliamentary Constituencies include Arun District - Rt Hon Nicholas Herbert, Rt Hon Nicholas J. Gibb and Sir Peter Bottomley, have not it seems expressed any concern or contrition at the trashing of Neighbourhood Plans by their colleagues in Government at Westminster.

Yours faithfully,

Dr R F Smith

Trustee CPRE Sussex