Premier welcome the Council’s housing target for the plan area is to provide for at least 10,350 dwellings (equivalent to 575 dwellings per annum) to be delivered in the period 2021-2039 including 310 non-strategic Parish housing requirements and 657 windfall site allowances. However this is below the housing requirement of 13,734 (equivalent to 763 dwellings per annum) derived from the Governments Standard Method for the same period, resulting in a significant shortfall of 3,384 dwellings, notwithstanding the fact that the Council are “now unable to accommodate any unmet need from the part of the South Downs National Park within Chichester District” (as stated at supporting paragraph 5.1 to Policy H1) which has potential Duty to Co-operate implications.

In respect to five year housing land supply (5YHLS) considerations, it is noted CDC’s ‘Chichester Local Plan Area – Five Year Housing Land Supply 2022-2027 (Updated Position at 1 April 2022) statement identifies a potential housing supply of 3,174 net dwellings over the period 2022-2027. This compares with an identified housing requirement of 3,350 net dwellings. This results in a shortfall of 176 net dwellings, equivalent to 4.74 years of housing supply. The Council can therefore not demonstrate a 5YHLS as confirmed by recent appeal decisions , .

In the interests of maximising housing delivery and satisfying the Council’s objectively assessed housing needs, Policy H1 should be revised to state the housing requirement figure derived by the Government’s Standard Method so as to ensure the policy is “effective” and the new Local Plan has been “positively prepared” in accordance with paragraph 35 (a and c) of the NPPF.