Delivering growth

Like many counties, Worcestershire has to balance accommodating its growing population with the preservation of rural villages and market towns. Andy Jowett reports

Three local authorities – Worcester City Council, Wychavon District Council and Malvern Hills District Council – have put their heads together to juggle these demands while meeting the housing, infrastructure and economic needs of the south of the county until 2030.

“The reason that the three councils are working together on this is that Worcester city cannot accommodate its own growth needs within its city boundaries,” Gill Collin, Wychavon District Council’s head of housing and planning services, explains.

“So we need to work together to ensure that between us we can accommodate Worcester city’s future growth needs – hence the South Worcestershire Development Plan.”

Under the SWDP, around 20,000 new homes will be built in urban extensions to the city, as well as in the market towns of Droitwich Spa, Pershore and Evesham and rural villages.

It is a big task – but around 40 per cent of the properties needed under the plan have been built already or have planning permission. The remaining 12,000 properties will be delivered by private developers, with possible contributions from social landlords.

“What we’ll be looking at is a general mix of property types to cater for all needs,” Collin says.

“So where there’s a need for family homes, starter homes or Extra Care accommodation, then hopefully what is developed will reflect those needs.” To encourage the right schemes in the right areas, the councils are working on a housing market assessment to highlight what will be needed and where in the years ahead. I n addition, at least 40 per cent of the homes on sites with more than five properties will have to be affordable.

However, Collin says, a crucial element of the SWDP is that it is “economy-driven rather than just being led by housing numbers”.

Ultimately new homes are not much good without supporting infrastructure and, of course, jobs for the people who live in them.

So in addition to allocating land for housing, the plan also outlines business and employment zones, including an area immediately adjacent to W orcester earmarked for hi-tech industries.

Collin says one potential occupier of that hi-tech hub is Worcester Bosch, which employs around 2,000 people and manufactures boilers and renewable technologies, such as solar heating and ground and air source heat pumps. It is running out of room at its current base in Worcester and is looking for space to expand its operations and develop new training facilities.

The company aims to at least double its workforce over the next four to five years. Keeping it in the city means jobs for local people, as well as attracting other highly skilled workers, which will “help the economy and make it a more prosperous area for everybody”.

On the infrastructure front, South Worcestershire’s growth will require everything from roads and drainage to schools, health centres, playing fields and green spaces, community facilities and emergency services bases.

Collin says the three partner councils are working closely with Worcester County Council, which is the highway authority, on developing transport links and a host of other agencies have been involved in drawing up the SWDP to identify where, for example, housing development will necessitate a new school.

“One thing that all the authorities have made quite clear is that they want this to be infrastructure-led, not infrastructure-driven; in other words to ensure that we’ve got the infrastructure in place or at least we know it’s going to be in place alongside development,” she says.

But how will all this development sit with protecting the character of South Worcestershire’s market towns and rural communities?

Collin says a lot of the smaller housing allocations go through a process called SHLAA, or the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. In the old days, councils could draw lines on a map to determine new housing allocations, only to find out later that land owners were not open to selling up or building.

Under the SHLAA, land owners and developers put forward potential sites and the councils must assess, Collin says “almost like a beauty contest”, which areas could be developed. “Obviously if it’s in a flood plain … or an area of outstanding natural beauty, it would be knocked out straight away,” she adds.

This approach helps to avoid major problems later on and complies with a planning requirement that all the sites brought forward under the SWDP can be delivered.

It also means compromise is sometimes necessary and while some people are “against any growth” in rural areas, many others recognise that building new homes in villages will bring in the young families necessary to keep the local shops or school open.

Residents of South Worcestershire will get the chance to have their say on the SWDP when an eight-week consultation opens on 26 September. A series of exhibitions are planned so as many people as possible can give their opinion. At the moment, the plan is at the “preferred options” stage, which outlines the areas were developments could take place. Following the consultation, a submission version of the plan will be produced and, after further consultation, it will go to the secretary of state of the environment. Worcester, Wychavon and Malvern Hills aim to adopt the finished version in 2013.

It has been a lot of hard work already, but Collin believes the journey will ultimately prove beneficial to South Worcestershire and the wider county. “Without a plan we are entirely at the mercy of developers,” she says.

“If there’s no plan in place, the Government will probably allow what we call planning by appeal which means developers will put in planning applications to build wherever and they will be allowed on appeal because we haven’t got a plan in place and that could result in totally inappropriate development happening in totally inappropriate places.

“We just need to make sure that it’s the right development in the right place.”