The morning session was all about Birmingham's housing needs and it turned out to be very interesting. The main issues remain the scale of Birmingham's housing shortfall and its distribution. Martin Kingston QC led the attack on two grounds. First, that the Lichfield Plan is unsound because of the absence of clear evidence of housing need and that this demonstrates that the Duty to Co-operate has not been effectively carried out. The second point is that the shortfall in Birmingham's need is current and it should not be shuffled until some later date. Adopting the plan early could result in the incorrect strategy being adopted.
This position was criticised by others as scaremongering since the scale of the Birmingham shortfall remained uncertain and that, in effect, everyone was trying to cope with an inadequate planning system post-revocation of the Regional Spatial Strategy. The Inspector was keen to know what sort of scrutiny would take place on the Strategic Housing Needs Study.
In my view the answer - which was highlighted by the District Council - is really quite straightforward. The Strategic Housing Needs Study will inform the GBSLEP Spatial Plan that will propose the level and distribution of development. This is an informal process but it will be subject to scrutiny as part of local plan examinations. This may not be the ideal way forward but it represents the best shot at the moment.
Alternatives such as a conference of planning authorities with a binding outcome might be possible, and even desirable, but we have got some way to go to achieve this.
10/10/14: As a postscript to this, one of the light hearted moments was when Martin Kingston asked just where was the Birmingham housing shortfall going to go? Mars he suggested, although one could ask on what objective assessment had he chosen this? What would be wrong with Venus?!
