Linden Homes and Miller Homes support providing a mix of homes of differing size, types and tenures to meet a range of local needs. However, any such policy has to be flexible enough to recognise the range of needs locally and the specifics of the site and its context. The current, relatively rigid table is not considered to fully provide this flexibility and would not allow home builders to respond effectively to changing market conditions over the plan period, which in the current economic and political climate, can occur quickly. It also does not recognise that, within the district, and particularly on large sites such as West of Chichester, circumstances may exist which require a less prescriptive approach to housing mix on site. Furthermore, the financial viability of providing a given mix also had to be considered and allowed for in any policy wording to reflect that, particularly on larger sites, too heavy a weighting on any particular size of houses can have significant viability implications. This is currently not reflected in the policy wording.

The policy on specialist housing runs counter to the provisions of the allocation policy and masterplan for the site, neither of which are referenced in the West of Chichester Allocation policy. If the intention of policy DM2 is to allocate a proportion of the site for specialist housing, this should be clearly justified with site specific evidence in discussion with Linden Homes and Miller Homes as soon as is possible. If this is not the case, then this should be made clearer in the policy wording.

Finally, if it is the intention that the Nationally Described Space Standards (NDSS) become mandatory then this needs to be fully justified, which does not appear to currently be the case. Linden Homes and Miller Homes understand the size and types of homes that people want and will buy and, unless there is strong evidence that the NDSS is required to be mandatory to address District specific issues regarding home sizes being provided in the district and specifically on the West of Chichester site, this requirement should be reviewed. Any evidence relating to the adoption of the NDSS would also need to consider the affect it would have on viability, land supply and affordability of new homes as required by the NPPG.