3.1 The provision of housing land in the Local
Plan area must be seen against the backdrop of a variety of
influencing factors. Perhaps most significant is the District's
high landscape quality which has and continues to lead to
increasing numbers of people moving into the area with a consequent
pressure on the housing market, inflating house prices beyond the
reach of some sections of the local community. This situation is
exacerbated by the comparatively low wage rates available in the
area's largely rural economy.
3.2 Housing land provision must therefore be
made in ways which will cater for all levels of need and
aspiration, paying particular attention to those who are less able
to compete in the open market and yet who are most closely tied to
the area socially or by traditional employment. Careful regard must
be paid at the same time to the need to safeguard the high quality
environment of the District.
3.3 The Council's strategy for the Local Plan
area is to seek to support local communities and the services and
facilities upon which they depend. The Eden Local Plan will
therefore make allocations for housing land which relate to
existing settlements, are of a scale that respects the aspirations
of the local community and which take account of the likely effect
of the development on local services.
3.4 In addition to this primary role, the Local
Plan is the appropriate vehicle for giving consideration to a
variety of other issues which affect housing development. Some of
these, such as policies concerning housing development in the
countryside, reflect long established national guidance. Other
policies, including those dealing with the provision of affordable
housing for local people, reflect local considerations.
3.5 The Council's approach to planning for
housing must operate within the framework established by Government
guidance and the Structure Plan. In particular Government guidance
requires that a supply of land for housing equivalent sufficient to
meet at least five years demand must be maintained. It also
recognises the need to ensure that established environmental
policies are maintained and that, particularly in rural areas, new
development is sensitively related to existing settlement patterns.
Further, guidance now asks that strategies take into account the
need to plan for less travel, as set out in Planning Policy
Guidance Note 13.
3.6 Government guidance also constrains the way
in which affordable housing may be provided. Where development of a
site for housing is an acceptable use of land it is indicated that
there will not normally be any good land use planning reason to
restrict the occupancy of the houses to a particular type of
person. Occupancy conditions should not be imposed other than in
exceptional cases where residential development is to be permitted
as an exception to normal controls. Further, the allocation of land
for affordable housing, as distinct from general needs housing, is
not permitted. On a positive note, Government policy does recognise
that there are circumstances which may justify the regulation of
housing mix in order to meet an established local need for housing
for people with disabilities or to make special provision to meet
local needs for affordable housing.
3.7 The Local Plan must also have regard to
Structure Plan policy. Most significant is the identification of a
requirement to provide 4000 new dwellings during the Local Plan
period. The Structure Plan, in Policy 1, indicates that this should
largely be provided in the urban areas, including Alston, Appleby,
Kirkby Stephen and Penrith. Support for rural communities, which
forms a key principle of the Local Plan strategy, reflects the
guidance embodied in Structure Plan Policy 3 for the maintenance of
the vitality of rural life.
3.8 Having regard to the foregoing issues, and
to Plan Principles 3, 4, 5 and 6 set out at the beginning of this
document, the following objectives have been identified with
respect to housing provision.
Objective 14 to seek to meet
the full range of general housing needs found within the District's
communities in ways which will support their continued vitality
Objective 15 to make special
provision for meeting local needs for affordable housing.
Objective 16 to control housing
development in a way which minimises adverse impacts upon the
landscape, the undeveloped countryside, archaeology and sites of
nature conservation importance
Objective 17 to secure the
provision of housing development to appropriate standards of
accessibility.
