Medway Local Plan (Regulation 18, 2023)

The NPPF (paragraph 20), sets out that strategic policies should ‘set out an overall strategy for the pattern, scale and design quality of places, and make sufficient provision for [amongst others]:
a) housing (including affordable housing), employment, retail, leisure and other commercial development’;

Furthermore, the National Planning Policy Framework (‘NPPF’) requires that in order to boost housing supply, local planning authorities (‘LPAs’) should identify a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide 5-years’ worth of housing against their housing requirements with an additional buffer of 20% where there has been a record of persistent under delivery of housing.

The consultation report highlights at paragraph 5.4 that “It has to be recognised that there is a housing crisis, particularly regarding affordability and there is an absolute need to provide the right homes in the right places to meet Medway’s growing needs and the requirements for those desperately needing a good quality home”. It goes on to acknowledge that many existing residents are living in over-crowded and / or sub-standard housing conditions.

It is important that the protection of the intrinsic character and qualities of a site or an area are considered, but these qualities can be protected when new housing development is delivered, through good design and by improving the sustainable networks and access to places and services. Rather than seen as negative, new housing development should be seen as an opportunity to improve the area for the current and future residents delivering the types and quantity of homes that are desperately needed. On this basis, respectfully, reference to ‘housing delivery’ should be made in the vision.

The NPPF sets out in paragraph 22 that it is important that ‘where larger scale developments such as new settlements or significant extensions to existing villages and towns form part of the strategy for the area, policies should be set within a vision that looks further ahead (at least 30 years), to take into account the likely timescale for delivery’.

It is submitted that the development of Bloors Farm as a primarily housing-led scheme could be an option to deliver not only the existing elements of the vision for Medway, but could also deliver important housing numbers in the Medway area early on the plan period. The site is both available and the development of the site is achievable.