‘Tackling the housing crisis and climate crisis are not mutually exclusive’

On Tuesday, Bristol City Council will vote on whether to submit a new Local Plan to the secretary of state. This is the rule book for all new developments in Bristol, and will shape the city for years to come.

If passed, there will be six weeks where representations can be made from anyone who has an interest in what the final Local Plan should look like before it makes its way to the Planning Inspectorate for sign-off.

The proposed Local Plan is the result of years of cross-party working, thousands of pages of documents, three separate consultations involving more than 1,800 responses from individuals and groups, discussions with neighbouring authorities, and adaptation to changing national policies.

Following submission, the Local Plan will be “tested” by an appointed planning inspector to ensure it is robust in meeting the various, and often conflicting, demands placed upon it – including its ability to deliver a level of housing that meets an identified target.

Some have lobbied for voting against the Local Plan being submitted to the Planning Inspectorate; wanting to defer it and deliver a “better” Local Plan at an unspecified point in the future.

It is not always clear what is meant by “better” except a blanket inclusion of all the proposed alterations made by the group or individual concerned. In my opinion, this would be counterproductive.

St Paul’s is just one area of Bristol undergoing rapid change – photo: Martin Booth

Our current Local Plan saw its core strategy adopted in 2011, with additional policies adopted in 2014. The existing Local Plan covers 20 years from 2006 to 2026.

We are now in 2023 and rapidly approaching a time when those Local Policies adopted could be considered “out of date” and no longer applicable.

For balance, it is worth pointing out that “could” is a key caveat here.

Recent legal cases have clarified that some policies could still have consideration if they were clearly intended to last longer than the plan period (this could apply to some environmental policies for example), or if there has been no significant change to national policy in a particular area since the adoption of the current Local Plan. In the end, whether a specific Local Plan policy is considered “out of date” will be a planning judgment, and could be challenged by a third party leading to the council being caught up in costly legal challenges.

The “expiry” of a Local Plan is, however, not the only circumstance in which our policies could be considered “out of date” – a separate condition applies to Local Plans which fail to deal with the strategic issue of housing supply.

In short, for applications involving new housing, if the council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land able to meet its housing needs, then Local Plan policies can be considered to be “out of date” and no longer applicable.

The proposed Local Plan addresses this challenge in two ways. Firstly, it provides a strong, evidence-based case for a housing target for Bristol that is based on realistic needs rather than a politically motivated and inflated target imposed by central government, which is impossible for Bristol to deliver.

Secondly, it identifies key regeneration areas where the majority of new housing can be built, backed up by a further 90+ site allocations across the city where more housing could be provided.

The new Local Plan provides multiple policies supported by Greens, that are designed to help tackle the climate and ecological emergencies whilst also meeting crucial housing needs, as well as vital transport links, employment opportunities, and amenities.

These include policies on net zero carbon development and operational carbon; renewable energy and energy efficiency; flood risk and water management; nature conservation and recovery; protection/provision of food growing and allotments, and so on; issues that we as Greens really care about for the city!

This revision is also good news for campaigners who have worked so hard in trying to protect Yew Tree Farm and Western Slopes, by reversing the existing Local Plan inclusion of the Western Slopes as a development site and the 2019 inclusion of Yew Tree Farm as another development site.

A new designation of Local Green Space (LGS) to 174 green spaces will protect our vital city green spaces, akin to that applied to the Green Belt.

For those green spaces that don’t meet the LGS criteria – as set by the National Planning Policy Framework-  a new designation of Reserved Open Space will be applied to another 400+ sites across the city, adding even more protections for urban green space.

Many of these policies reflect updated assessments that reflect our priority as Green Councillors – the urgent need to address the climate and ecology emergencies.

But in order to implement these local policies, we need a Local Plan that is up to date, not one that is over a decade old.

We need a Local Plan that is evidence-based about meeting housing needs, protects valued green space as much as possible, but is still able to demonstrate that it also takes every viable step to meet the other varied requirements of a diverse and complex city like Bristol.

That is why I will be voting in favour of submitting the Local Plan to the secretary of state. And why the Green group commits to policies that work clearly as intended.

This new Local Plan provides Bristol with a solid base, and Greens can build on this base to ensure those positive outcomes are delivered.

Tackling the housing crisis and climate crisis in Bristol need not be mutually exclusive.

This is an opinion piece by Tony Dyer, Green Party councillor for Southville and co-shadow cabinet member for housing delivery and homes, planning, and city design

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• ‘Delivering change in Bristol requires politicians to be bold’
• ‘New’ plan to protect pubs in Bristol from housing developers
• Yew Tree Farm to be protected under new plans
• Exploring the hidden histories of south Bristol neighbourhoods

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