Land for 11,000 new homes to be set aside

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

Land for more than 11,000 new homes is to be set aside for future development, and in some areas at least of half of them will need to be classed as affordable.

Swansea Council planning officers are working on what was described as a “Herculean task” of preparing a new 15-year planning blueprint to guide housebuilding and employment proposals in the county.

The new plan will replace the current one, although the starting point will be 2023, and it will run until 2038. As things stand it will identify land which can provide 11,410 new homes – the equivalent of 760 per year.

Brownfield sites

A report before full council said a core component of the new local development plan, or LDP2 as it’s known, will be to maximise the use of brownfield land while “recognising the need for greenfield release to deliver transformational regeneration objectives”.

Report author Tom Evans said while Swansea’s “core urban area” would play its part, outlying sites within or on the edge of existing neighbourhoods would be considered. Some sites would have more than 400 homes, although that is the case currently as large plots of land earmarked years ago in the current LDP in places like Penllergaer and Garden Village are developed.

Another focus of the new development plan will be meeting the pressing need for affordable housing. Some sites taken forward for development will have a minimum requirement of 50% affordable homes. Transport connections, including to potential new railway stations being explored as part of the South West Wales Metro project, will also influence where new development takes place.

To date 132 candidates sites for housing have been assessed, with 18 discounted. More detailed assessments will take place and there will be further opportunities for the public to have a say.

Regeneration schemes

The new plan will also create a framework for “transformative regeneration schemes” at Swansea docks, sites along the River Tawe and the city centre, although no further detail was given. Meanwhile, retail and leisure schemes will also be promoted for “district centres” where people live, rather than industrial estates for example.

The development plan will aim to attract inward investment, encourage growth, diversify tourism, boost biodiversity and continue a shift towards a “greener” Swansea. The current modelling indicates just over 10,200 jobs being created over the 15-year plan period.

Cllr Paxton Hood-Williams asked how many homes had been built during the current LDP period and how many were in the pipeline. Mr Evans said levels of housing completions were well below target and that this was the case throughout Wales and the UK.

Swansea’s existing LDP identified the need for 15,600 new homes between 2010 and 2025, equating to 1,040 per year on average. A council report last November said 6,756 had been built in the 14 years from 2010-11 to 2023-24, less than half of the target to date.

Covid

Factors holding back housebuilding have included the Covid pandemic, Brexit, supply chain issues, labour shortages, flood risk policy, and new drainage and ecology requirements.

Mr Evans said many aspects of the current LDP were working well and that it was a very well regarded plan in Wales. Swansea Council, he said, was the first authority to implement a “place-making” approach, which means creating desirable and well-connected places to live where people can also work and spend leisure time.

Migration patterns, housing costs, job opportunities, family ties and lifestyle choices feed into people’s decisions about where to settle. Swansea’s population rose in the early years of this century and stood at 239,023 according to the 2011 Census but, surprisingly, fell slightly to 238,500 a decade later.

Significant work lies ahead to refine and develop LDP2, which will only be adopted after being examined by Welsh Government-appointed planning inspectors. Cllr Peter May commended planning officers on this “Herculean task” but wanted to know if the December 2027 target adoption date was optimistic.

Mr Evans said the latter stages would include a public inquiry, taking things beyond the council’s control to some extent, but he felt December 2027 was “a realistic timeframe”.

He said LDP2 at this stage was not detailed plan, but one that set a strategic decision and overarching principles. “It makes clear the scale and broad approach to growth that we will follow,” he said.