Following the letter dated 11 February 2022 from the independent Inspectors about Solihull’s Local Plan, Solihull Council has managed to deal with a number of the issues highlighted by the Inspectors.
The examination in public hearings that took place from September 2021 to February 2022 raised a number of issues that the inspectors wanted the Council to respond to before they could confirm whether the plan is sound.
They have already concluded that the Council has complied with the duty to co-operate in the preparation of the Local Plan.
A Solihull Council spokesperson said:
“The Council has moved at pace to deal with some technical details, for instance, providing an update on a likely housing trajectory that the Inspectors highlighted. These can be viewed here.
“We have agreed that the period of the plan should be adjusted to ensure that when it is adopted, it looks forward over a fifteen-year period to be consistent with national policy. With adoption likely later this year, the end period of the plan will now run to 2037.
“This adjustment does have implications for the number of homes each site will need to deliver, but as most of these additional homes are expected to be realised towards the end of the Plan we are confident there is enough flexibility in our proposals to accommodate this change, and we are not seeking to identify any further sites.
“We are currently working closely with the NEC to provide the evidence to justify their ambitious vision for the site that would see the delivery of more than 2,000 new homes by 2036.”
More information about the Local Plan can be found here.