South Gloucestershire forms part of the West of England (WoE), and planning authorities are meant to work together to deal with the region's housing; in this case, this requires a plan to tackle with not only housing needs that are arising in South Gloucestershire, but also unmet needs that Bristol City cannot accommodate due to a lack of land within their boundaries.
A number of attempts to produce a plan by the WoE authorities have failed. This included the production of the Joint Spatial Plan (JSP) which was withdrawn after independent Planning Inspectors identified it was flawed.
Although the JSP ultimately failed, it made it clear that meeting the region's open market and affordable housing needs required bold decision making, including releasing land from the Green Belt and delivering large scale strategic developments.
The Government committed to a target of delivering 300,000 homes per year; the closest it has got is 242,700 homes, which was achieved in 2020. Analysis by the National Housing Federation and Crisis (a homelessness charity) found around 340,000 new homes should be supplied in England each year with 145,000 of them required to be affordable, if the current housing crisis is to be addressed.
While focus is rightly put on the need to deliver affordable housing products (such as rented accommodated and shared ownership/First Homes), delivering sufficient open market housing is also very important. This is because insufficient supply leads to increasing prices for homes which make getting on the housing ladder extremely hard even for those with relatively well-paid jobs, leaving many with the only option being rented properties.
The lack of supply of housing is also a significant factor in spiralling rents; while it is not the only solution, delivering more housing in Bristol will help suppress property prices, which will then also feed into the rental market.
In South Gloucestershire, the Council have identified a need of 460 affordable homes per year - however, this is not reflective of the true need which is estimated to be over double that. Even against the lower figure of 460 dwellings, there has been an under delivery of 2,098 homes in the authority area since 2006.
The lack of delivery of affordable homes is having a profound effect on those in greatest need, resulting in more people living in overcrowded, unsuitable or temporary accommodation. The latest data from South Gloucestershire indicates that there are 3,969 active applications for rented affordable housing in the locality. In Bristol City, which is closely interlinked with South Gloucestershire, it is estimated to be nearly 21,000 households.
These figures also do not take into account those who want a shared ownership/low cost purchase and those in the private rental housing market.
All of the available indicators point towards the pressing need to deliver more housing to meet the acute housing need that has been identified in South Gloucestershire and the 'Greater Bristol' area.
In the past it has been accepted that significant amounts of land need to be identified in South Gloucestershire to address housing needs, including the release of Green Belt land.
The prosperity of South Gloucestershire is inextricably linked to Bristol City, and therefore the location of WGC for delivering much needed housing has significant mutual benefits.
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