Sandwell Local Plan - Issues & Options Consultation

3. Development Strategy and Housing Provision

Sandwell is a place of contrasts – a highly urbanised landscape with a rich history of heavy industry containing significant areas of open space, parks and canals, historic buildings and places and a growing number of young and ambitious communities. The aim of the SLP is to provide sufficient land and infrastructure to support the continued growth and regeneration of the borough's economy while at the same time protecting its valuable and sensitive open spaces, natural and historic landscapes and distinctive communities.

The borough is multi-centric, with seven main town centres and several smaller local centres serving the population. The development strategy will need to act as a framework within which each of these centres and their associated communities will sit, allowing development to spread around Sandwell into the locations best suited for it.

The SLP will have to deal with allocating housing sites across the borough and identifying sufficient housing sites to provide new houses to help meet current and future demand. It will also need to address how sites that come forward during the lifetime of the plan can be dealt with, in particular where they result from the loss of employment land.

There is still, despite the number of housing sites that have been identified and allocated, a shortfall in the numbers of houses that need to be built across the Black Country to meet identified needs. Sandwell itself has a housing need of approximately 30,300 new dwellings between 2021 and 2041 that will not all be delivered by the allocations that will be included in the plan, with an overall supply figure of around 9,492^[9]. There will be several options for dealing with this, but the main issue remains the lack of available land suitable for housing.

We have a finite supply of land readily available for development and it is very likely that we cannot meet all our housing need within Sandwell itself. We can ask adjacent councils if they can let us effectively count some of their available housing towards our need in Sandwell, but many other local councils are in a similar position to us in not having sufficient land to meet their own development needs.

Another possible option is to increase the numbers of houses proposed for new housing sites – we can require developers to build to a higher density in areas where the local infrastructure will support this. For example, housing sites in town centres or close to good public transport links can usually accommodate higher housing numbers than in the suburbs or less-developed areas. The draft BCP suggested densities of

• 100+ dwellings per hectare on sites in strategic or main town centres;
• 45+ dwellings per hectare where sites were highly accessible (e.g. within a ten-minute walk to a GP surgery, local shops etc.); and
• 40+ dwellings per hectare for other locations.

Integrating land use and transport polices is integral in affecting the way people travel from their homes to places of work, education and to access goods and services. Mixed land uses, high density housing, giving priority to pedestrian and cycle paths as the main network for internal neighbourhood traffic, giving priority to public transport as the most important element of a sustainable personal transport system can reduce travel distances and enable active modes and other sustainable modes of transport to access goods and services, reducing private vehicle use, congestion and associated vehicle emissions.

7) Questions – Future Development in Sandwell

Additional small housing sites will become available after the Plan has been adopted and provision to deal with them will need to be made in the new plan. These developments, known as housing windfall sites, are expected to provide approximately 1920 homes across Sandwell between 2021 and 2041 and as a result the SLP will have a role in both allocating those sites that are known about when the SLP is being prepared and in dealing with similar sites that are not currently allocated but come forward subsequently.

Where sites are identified during the lifetime of the SLP, they will be dealt with like other planning applications, with reference to the appropriate strategic and local policies on sustainability, design, location, infrastructure and environment. In Sandwell, windfall sites are likely to arise where sites currently in employment use are vacated. In some cases, these sites will be retained for employment uses as they will be of strategic importance to the local economy. In other cases, the council will need to decide whether sites should remain in employment use or be redeveloped for housing or other uses.

8) Questions – Housing Windfall Sites

Sandwell is a highly sustainable location in many ways, given its history of industry and employment existing alongside residential areas and its good transport and road links. The SLP will seek to maintain those close relationships and networks by encouraging development to make the most of its surroundings and communities, and to provide sufficient opportunities for new and improved infrastructure such as schools, health and emergency services, open spaces and transport hubs.

9) Questions – Sustainable Locations

Masterplans are generally used to help guide development proposals for large or complex sites by showing how new development can be included in local areas. The Council has supported the production of masterplans for West Bromwich^[11] and the Smethwick to Birmingham Corridor^[12] that will be used to sustain the ongoing regeneration of the areas, and similar documents can be produced where they would help deliver high quality and comprehensive development.

The main issue for the SLP is whether there is a need for a policy about the production of masterplans and to set out the circumstances under which one would be required.

10) Questions - Masterplanning

Sandwell Council is committed to delivering new development, places and environments that reflect the principles of good design. The current National Planning Policy Framework states that, 'The creation of high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings and places is fundamental to what the planning and development process should achieve'. Creating well-designed places and homes that are distinctive, well-connected, safe and attractive and that provide sufficient space for occupiers' differing needs now and into the future is important; it will make people feel proud of the places where they live and work and help communities to thrive.

The National Design Guide^[13] is a comprehensive document that sets out the need for and role of good design in the built environment. It identifies and illustrates the Government's priorities for well-designed places and forms part of the NPPF. Where councils do not have their own in-house design guidance, the national guidance should be used.

The National Design Guide should also be read in conjunction with the National Model Design Code^[14], which provides detailed information on the production of design codes, guides and policies to promote successful design. The National Model Design Code states a Design Code is:

A set of illustrated design requirements that provide specific, detailed parameters for the physical development of a site or area. The graphic and written components of the code should build upon a design vision, such as a masterplan or other design and development framework for a site or area.

The BCP proposed two policies^[15] relating to design, which supported the delivery of well-designed buildings and spaces that provided an attractive and accessible environment. They also considered climate change and required buildings and landscapes to be designed in ways that could help mitigate its impacts.

There are several documents already in use in Sandwell that help planning officers make decisions on applications with design implications. These include the Residential Design Guide (2014)^[16], the Community Safety^[17] and Cycling^[18] supplementary planning guidance documents (both 2004), area action plans for West Bromwich, Smethwick and Tipton and some neighbourhood and local guidance. Much of this work can be used to develop and inform any design guide / code and can also be either incorporated into the new local plan where needed or updated following adoption of the new plan.

Proposed changes to the status of supplementary guidance form part of the current consultation on national planning guidance; it is possible that such documents will be replaced in due course by "supplementary plans", which will themselves be subject to public examinations. Otherwise, we can choose to incorporate aspects of the supplementary guidance into the new local plan at a later stage. In any case, many of these supplementary planning documents are now out of date and / or have been superseded by the delivery of development or by new legislation, while others could usefully be amalgamated as part of a more joined-up approach to topics such as sustainable travel or design.

Any new design code will also be subject to public consultation as part of its adoption, and as such authorities will sometimes prepare and consult on them in tandem with the preparation of a local plan.

We intend to adopt and use the Nationally Described Space Standards^[19], which deal with internal space within new dwellings and are suitable for application across all tenures. They set out requirements for the Gross Internal (floor) Area of new dwellings at a defined level of occupancy as well as floor areas and dimensions for key parts of the home, notably bedrooms, storage and floor to ceiling height. Using these standards ensures that new houses are built with sufficient internal space to allow for comfortable and healthy occupation.

11) Questions – Good Design

Planning permission is required for any alteration that materially affects the external appearance or design of shopfronts, including canopies /awnings and some security measures. Many proposed shop signs will also require Advertisement Consent.

All new external security shutters on shopfronts need planning permission. However, use of toughened glass and internal grills would not normally require planning permission unless the building is 'listed' in which case 'Listed Building Consent' may be required.

The current SAD contains policies on both these matters, and it will be important for the SLP to offer continued guidance on aspects of town centre design to help ensure our shopping centres become and remain attractive and welcoming places to visit. It is intended to retain and update both policies in the SLP.

12) Question - Shopfront Design