Issue - meetings

A period of up to one hour is allocated to consider the motions on notice.  This may only be extended with the agreement of the Council.

To consider the following motion submitted by Councillor :-

The Chairman reminded Members that one hour was allocated to consider the motions on notice.

G. L. Hearn Report

Members considered the following notice of motion, submitted by Councillor C. A. Hotham:

“BDC will temporarily set aside the broad brush basic report of Hearn until such time as its own in depth comprehensive review of the green belt has been completed. Only then will the content and conclusions of the Hearn report be considered alongside our own detailed investigation into the green belt.”

The motion was proposed by Councillor C. A. Hotham and seconded by Councillor S. R. Colella.

In proposing the motion Councillor Hotham highlighted a number of areas included within the G. L. Hearn report, which included a housing requirement of 28,000 by 2031 and 60,800 houses by 2036.  He believed that there by using a higher housing density the number could drop by 13,000, reducing these figures to 15,000 and 48,000 respectively.  In respect of the sites which the report stated were available across the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area it showed that 180,000 to 2031 and 198,000 available to 2036.  However, in March 2018 the Government and WMCA announced funding to “clean” Brown Field sites, which meant that 215,000 sites would now be available to 2031.  Councillor Hotham said his understanding of this was that it actually meant that to 2031 there would be a housing surplus of 20,000 with the shortfall dropping to 25,684 to the end of 2036.  The report also suggested that should all the proposed sites be maximised then Bromsgrove could take 27,500, which would actually be 2,000 more than its total shortfall.  His concern was that the majority of these homes would be executive style and not affordable ones, which were desperately needed.  Councillor Hotham went on to comment about the role of G. L. Hearn and the other work which they carried out and questioned whether they had been impartial during the preparation of this report.

Councillor Hotham went on to question the methodology used in assessing the Green Belt and the designation of Principle and supportive categories, highlighting that most of the Bromsgrove Green Belt was classed as Principle and how this could undermine the strategic purpose of the Green Belt.  Councillor Hotham believed that at no point had it been suggested within the Council Chamber that it was anything other than a needs assessment and not as an identification of sites.  He also highlighted that there still appeared to be confusion over who had commissioned and paid for the report.  He went on to say he understood that the document had been described as not a consultation document, but merely informed us of Birmingham’s needs, and that he believed that the housing number had shifted fundamentally and therefore undermined the report.  Councillor Hotham therefore requested that the report be put on hold under the Council was able to complete its own review and that not to do so would give the report a credence and credibility that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107