Small housing sites (9 units and under) currently make up almost 20 per cent of the council’s housing supply and can provide a valuable pipeline for SME house builders in addition to providing opportunities for self-build and custom build housing; helping to diversify the housing market offer. The council was keen to understand and evaluate the issues and challenges facing delivery of smaller sites across the district. Looking a fresh at how we interact with landowners, promoters and developers. By understanding reasons for delays we can target solutions which are proactive and engaging to make a difference. Ultimately this will help support our housing growth strategy, as set out in the adopted 2020 Harrogate District Local Plan. It will also provide benefits through improved customer service for our Planning function and assist economic growth through construction jobs and support services.
We appointed independent expertise, there is real added value in engaging external consultants to undertake this type of project. This approach allows us to gain an accurate view of how we are perceived by our customers. Local Partnerships undertook the study on behalf of the council. They looked at how we interact with landowners, promoters and developers of small sites. The study explored barriers to timely delivery and considered proactive and engaging initiatives to bring consented sites forward in a timely manner. Key to the study was engagement with applicants and agents to better understand the issues they faced. Postal, online and telephone surveys were undertaken as well as 1-2-1 follow up informal interviews. The responses were analysed and the study reported back to the core project team and senior officers.
It is still early days but the council has already put new posts in place whose roles are to improve housing delivery. We are proactively engaging more directly with agents, applicants and colleagues to start making changes. We hope that in undertaking this study and setting achievable actions we can enable improvements and increase opportunities for small sites.
Delays in developing small sites is not a unique or local issue. A number of local authorities across the country are facing similar problems. The council will develop and implement a package of actions to support landowners and SMEs. Partnership working with other local authorities is a great way to share experience and potential solutions. The council is very much committed to exploring new initiatives in order to unlock new home developments and to share lessons learned with other partners and local authorities. Equally, the council is keen to gain experience from other councils who are succeeding in driving an up-take in small sites supply.