Cyngor Bro Morgannwg
Vale of Glamorgan Council

The inclusion of the allowance for development viability in Policy SP13 is endorsed. It is vital that the Council take account of development viability when considering community infrastructure and planning obligations. To not do so, could jeopardise whole allocations which would undermine the delivery of much needed affordable and market housing in VoG. Care needs to be taken to ensure that any additional planning obligations beyond the affordable housing are carefully considered in terms of overall viability.

As drafted, Policy SP13 is consistent with PPW paragraph 4.2.21 which states that: “Where new housing is to be proposed, development plans must include policies to make clear that developers will be expected to provide community benefits34 which are reasonably related in scale and location to the development. In doing so, such policies should also take account of the economic viability of sites and ensure that the provision of community benefits would not be unrealistic or unreasonably impact on a site’s delivery.” Also, with paragraph 4.2.32 of PPW which states that: “When setting the affordable housing thresholds and/or site-specific targets planning authorities must consider their impact on site viability to ensure residential sites remain deliverable.”

Thus, as drafted Policy SP13 meets the three tests of soundness.