To consider any questions submitted by Members.  (The deadline for questions is 4.30 pm on the Monday the week before the meeting – please contact Democratic Services by e-mailing democraticservices@swale.gov.uk or call 01795 417330).

The Mayor advised that 2 questions have been received from members.

Question 1 - Councillor James Hunt

The Leader has said, on a number of occasions, that 'Land Banking" by housing developers is a problem we have in Swale.

Deliberately banking land and delaying the delivery of sites slows the local housing market and impacts the council's five year housing supply, putting pressure on the need to look favourably at speculative applications coming forward.

Would the Leader please list the development sites in the borough where approval has been given, but where housing is not being built out due to the act of land banking?

Response – Leader

I would like to thank Cllr Hunt for his question.

It again contains one of those claims made by certain opposition members without any reference to the provenance of those claims, without any evidence, and without any context. 

I fully agree with the points he makes in his second paragraph, and understand that his own Government also recognises the problem and we all hope they are willing to take appropriate action in the forthcoming Levelling Up Bill. 

A debate in parliament in June 2021 was reported in Hansard saying “ In 2019, almost 400,000 homes were given planning permission in England, but only 240,000 were actually built. Over a 10-year period, from 2009, 2.5 million homes were given planning permission, but only 1.5 million homes were actually built. That translates to a backlog of roughly 1 million unbuilt homes

From observation across the Borough, it is obvious that there are numerous sites where planning permission has been given but the developer has yet to commence development. I am assuming that this is what Cllr Hunt is referring to. There may be any number of reasons why this is so and undoubtedly some developers are delaying commencement for commercial reasons relating to house prices, market saturation etc. In other situations, developers may have gained outline consent but have yet to apply for reserve matters or may be in the process of discharging conditions before they commence development. 

There is currently no way to compel developers to build out or complete developments as the current government regime allows developers to nominally commence development to keep the permission ‘alive.’ 

Cllr Hunt may be aware, planning permissions are monitored as part of the process for preparing the Housing Land Supply position statement. Assessments are made to determine if a site is ‘not started’ or ‘under construction’. It is a numbers exercise to determine housing delivery numbers so this data can be fed into the calculation. Details of why sites are delivering at their rates is not relevant to the calculation so not collected. 

If Cllr Hunt would care to clarify the scope of the answer he is seeking, i.e. is he asking about sites that have gained planning permission but not yet started, those where development has minimally commenced, or those sites with outline permission only I can ask the planners to look into matters and report back, if he feels that such a resource-intensive use of officer time is the best use of that time. 

Supplementary question:

The question was not asked to cause issues, it’s a genuine question asking which sites in the Borough developers were banking.  If there were genuine sites in the Borough that were not coming forward, that have planning approval and could be built on, it would be good for the public to know where those sites were.  Could the Leader ask officers to provide a list of sites they believe might be being held back deliberately?

Response:

Land banking was not a legally defined term, and there was a risk that action could be taken against the Council if it used that term against developers. Yes, I will ask officers to put pressure on resistant developers as these were the people that make it difficult for us to meet the basic set targets that we don’t agree with.

Question 2 – Councillor Steve Davey

At the Extraordinary Council Meeting on Wednesday 4 January the Council agreed to fund the vehicle fleet for the new waste contract, which it will then own. Can you confirm how arrangements for repairing and servicing will work and the arrangements the Council will put in place to ensure these assets are maintained during the period of the contract? 

Response – Councillor Julian Saunders, Chair of Environment Committee

The Council have provided the funding for the purchase of the vehicles but will benefit from the contractor’s purchasing power with manufacturers along with saving money on lower costs of borrowing.

The Council will own the vehicle fleet and the contract documents provide clear responsibilities in order to protect the Council’s asset. The winning contractor is responsible for managing the vehicles in entirety (tasking all control and risk) so that covers licensing, tax, insurance and the relevant repairs and maintenance. They provided a clear method statement in their tender and will utilise the expertise of a local workshop contractor specialising in heavy goods vehicles. The Councils will receive regular update reports on vehicle servicing and maintenance, vehicle downtime and have contract staff regularly based at the depot site to spot any issues. We will also undertake reviews through an external specialist should it be deemed necessary.

The Councils also have additional coverage through the contract. Failure to maintain the vehicles properly will require the contractor to pay for replacements should they be needed so this gives an incentive for proactive management of vehicles. Furthermore, the contract performance mechanism (the way in which we hold the contractor to account for service failure) will be used should vehicle breakdowns result in poor service. This includes strengthened financial penalties compared to the current contract.

Supplementary

Do you think it was irresponsible for social media posts to put out the wrong information?

Response

It was not helpful to the public to be given inaccurate information.  My initial response referred to the lower rate of borrowing combined with the contractor’s purchasing power which would yield a saving.  It would also give the Council more control in managing the contract.