The Black Country Plan Review consultation in 2021 confirmed that there is a significant shortfall in housing land for the period up to 2039 arising from the Black Country, with nearly 29,000 dwellings needing to be delivered elsewhere
The West Midlands has successfully delivered housing across its urban areas over the last few years utilising brownfield land supported by the release of Green Belt land to assist in meeting the shortfall in new housing that arose from Birmingham up to 2031.
While the region’s local plan reviews continue to contend with these housing needs, it is becoming increasingly clear that the GBBCHMA and authorities beyond the housing market area need to ‘effectively deal’ with the matter if the region is to meet the challenge of providing sufficient land for new housing.
Planning consultancy Lichfields has prepared its ‘The Black Country’s next top model’ Insight report, which examines the unmet housing needs and strategic planning issues in Greater Birmingham and Black Country Housing Market Area (GBBCHMA).
Lichfield states that the West Midlands region has suffered for too long with ad-hoc approach to planning, and a pan-regional, evidence-based approach to housing is needed.
Furthermore, the report argues for an evidence-based strategy and a more formal mechanism for allocating and distributing housing development.
‘Delivering the new housing needed within the region’
Jon Kirby, senior director and head of Lichfields Birmingham office commented: “Crucially, if local authorities work together, and draw on an agreed evidence-based approach, we can then deliver the new housing needed within the region and create the places where local people will want to live and build communities.”
‘Meeting unmet housing needs of the Black Country promptly’
Myles Wild-Smith, associate director also stated: “The time is now for all involved in planning and housebuilding to have a full and frank conversation about how to tackle this issue.
“There is no single panacea to determine the proportion of unmet needs that LPAs should seek to accommodate from others.
“A formal mechanism needs to be reached to ensure that everyone is compelled to work together to meet the unmet housing needs of the Black Country promptly and any that potentially arise from the forthcoming review of the Birmingham Plan.
“An evidenced-based approach to distributing these needs amongst the authorities, perhaps one that is similar to the functional relationship approach adopted by other authorities, could actively assist in ensuring that this need is distributed sustainably.”
The report identifies that local authorities could accommodate between 1 – 13% each of the estimated almost 29,000 new homes that need to be built over the next two decades beyond the Black Country if the region’s chronic housing shortage is to be tackled.
