Local Plan - your questions answered

Can we stop building more homes? 

No, National Planning Policy is set by central government and requires us to seek to achieve the mandatory housing target as a minimum and doesn’t offer any opt out clause.

There is also a demonstrable need for more housing in the Braintree district with many people wanting to live in the district and people living longer. Addressing the housing crisis is a topic high on the agenda of national government and they have a target to build 300,000 new homes a year across the country. This means that every local authority across the country has been given a tough housing target to meet. For the Braintree district, this is 1,115 new homes a year.

If the council does not plan positively for the new homes that the district needs, development will continue to happen anyway in line with the National Planning Policy Framework. Without an up-to-date Local Plan, the council and local people would have less say on what type of housing is built and where. We will also have less say over new open space, good design, high sustainability standards and having a good mix of housing that includes family homes and accommodation for the elderly.

In a worst-case scenario, the government could even write the Local Plan for us. This means that they would make the decision about where new housing would go instead of the community and the Council.

Will the district's infrastructure be able to cope the scale of growth planned?

The Local Plan is not just about new homes and jobs; we also need new infrastructure including schools, GPs, public transport, roads, utilities, parks and leisure facilities to support that growth. New development can contribute towards new infrastructure through Section 106 Agreements.

Section 106 agreements are a type of planning obligation and legal agreement between local planning authorities and developers attached to planning permission to secure financial contributions or works from developers towards new or improved facilities. We continue to work hard to bring in more financial contributions through planning to levy in much needed infrastructure and community facilities from new housing developments. The responsibility to deliver Section 106 improvements sits with many different authorities i.e. Essex County Council for highways and education and the NHS for healthcare. We actively encourage authorities to spend the funding and deliver infrastructure improvements to benefit our communities.

We work with local authorities to share a stronger voice to central government to lobby for the need for an infrastructure first approach to housing delivery and sustained growth, that should be supported with significant government investment.