Council accepts new housing figures

Wiltshire Council has given an initial response to the request from the planning inspectorate to make changes to the Core Strategy document. See earlier article.

The council has agreed to increase the housing requirement and has taken a simplistic approach to doing so, changing the original figure of 37,000 homes to the new figure of 42,000, with a proportionate distribution of the new housing between the main towns.

The council will also re-examine its policies on affordable housing provision, on gypsy site allocations, and on settlement policy limits. A new development plan will be drawn up for Chippenham, where the original proposals were effectively thrown out en bloc by the Inspector.

Council planners still hope the Core Strategy will be approved in principle, with work continuing on separate Development Plan Documents to fill the various gaps. The state of play will be reviewed by the WC Cabinet in January.