Decision details

To agree the City Council's response to the Housing White Paper and associated Background papers and Technical reports.

The Director of City Development submitted a report presenting for approval the Council’s proposed response to the Government’s Housing White Paper (HWP) (and associated background and technical documents) entitled, ‘Fixing our Broken Housing Market’, which were issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on the 7th February 2017.

In presenting the report, the Executive Member for Regeneration, Transport and Planning, highlighted the contents of a letter proposed to accompany the response which provided an overview of how the Council would engage with the Government and identified the potential for good working relationships to achieve more for Leeds.

Additionally, the Board considered the inclusion of an ‘environmental impact’ statement on planning applications which would seek to ensure developers indicated measures intended to mitigate any detrimental environmental impact which may be caused by their schemes. 

RESOLVED –

(a)  That approval be given to the recommendations in response to the HWP questions, Background papers and Technical information, as set out within appendices 1 and 2 of the submitted report;

(b)  That approval be given to the additional City Council comments in response to the HWP, as set out within Appendix 1 to the submitted  report;

(c)  That the necessary authority be delegated to the Chief Planning Officer, in consultation with the Executive Member for Regeneration, Transport and Planning, to make any further supplementary or additional comments to the HWP, Background papers and Technical information, in addition to the submitted material considered by the Board;

(d)  That for those reasons as specified in paragraph 4.5.2 of the submitted report, the resolutions within this minute be exempted from the Call In process.

(The Council’s Executive and Decision Making Procedure Rules state that a decision may be declared as being exempt from the Call In process if the decision taker considers that any delay would seriously prejudice the Council’s, or the public’s interests. In line with this, the resolutions contained within this minute were exempted from the Call In process, due to, as stated within the submitted report considered by the Board, the short timescales to comment upon the HWP proposals (set by DCLG) and the timing of Scrutiny and Executive Board meetings. The HWP (Background papers and technical material) was issued on the 7^th February 2017.  Due to the wide ranging nature of the material and the need to complete internal consultation across Council services in preparing the draft response, it had not been possible to report to Executive Board until the April cycle.  The deadline set by DCLG for final responses was the 2^nd May 2017.  Consequently, if the submitted report was to be Called In, it would be likely that this further consideration and any additional recommendations to Executive Board would not be concluded until after the deadline)

Consultation with Executive Member and relevant Council services.

Policy and Plans, Regeneration, Housing Services.