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Council wins battle with government over housing delivery test result
A council has forced the government to admit it got it wrong on its housing delivery test result after threatening ministers with High Court action.
Lewes District Council was one of more than 100 local authorities that fell short of the government’s target on housing delivery, after test results were belatedly released in February.
The initial result suggested that the council had delivered only 50% of the housing required under its adopted local plan over the previous three years.
However, councillors questioned the result and mounted a legal challenge. The case was due to be heard in the High Court this month.
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But the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) accepted defeat and last week issued Lewes District Council with a revised housing test delivery result of 86% before the case came to court.
The department acknowledged the council had delivered 709 homes out of the 824 required.
A letter to the local authority from Simon Gallagher, director of planning at MHCLG, said the revised result was due to “unique circumstances”.
This was partly due to a High Court judge previously quashing part of Lewes District Council’s local plan, meaning the housing requirement figure was lower than previous projections.
Mr Gallagher wrote: “We do not usually amend housing delivery test results but have done so here given [the council’s] unique circumstances. However, the new result and the method of calculating the decision do not bind the secretary of state in any future housing delivery test calculation.”
Under the previous housing delivery test result, the council’s local plan would have been treated as “out of date”, the authority said, as it would have been forced to add a 20% buffer to its five-year plan.
Emily O’Brien, cabinet member for planning at Lewes District Council, said: “We are extremely relieved that the hard work of the district council and our local communities in the preparation of our local and neighbourhood plans has not been jeopardised.”
The concept of housing delivery tests was first announced in the government’s Housing White Paper published in February 2017.
Local authorities have previously warned the test is too simplistic and builders have said it will underestimate housing need.
