The Leader of the Isle of Wight council, Lora Peacey Wilcox, has revealed that the new Housing Minister suggests that ‘exceptional factors’ could be considered for the Isle of Wight’s future housing targets.
In her report for next week’s Full Council meeting, Cllr Peacey-Wilcox explains,
I recently wrote to the then Secretary of State of for Housing Communities and Local Government in early September when I raised issues about the number of homes the government required in the new Island Planning Strategy and the negative impacts of the presumption in favour of development on securing the right mix and tenure of homes built on the Island.
Inspector appointed will examine Local Plan to assess the evidence
The leader goes on to explain that she’s just received a response from the new Minister of State for Housing (see below in full), which in summary suggests that that,
“It will be for the Inspector appointed to examine the Local Plan to assess the evidence provided by the council and to decide whether these [exceptional] factors could amount to constraints which would prevent the Isle of Wight from meeting its full housing needs.
“Having an effective, up to date plan is the best way to protect an area from unplanned development [on the basis of a presumption in favour of sustainable development].”
Open and transparent
An Alliance group spokesperson stated today (Thursday),
“Given the importance of this issue to the Island we have decided to release the letter in advance of the meeting.
“It has been sent to all Councillors and to be open we are now providing a copy of the letter to the press so that the public can see the full response from the Government to the request for information about this issue and following the claim that the Government would welcome a revised Island Plan claiming ‘Exceptional Circumstances’.”
