Issue - meetings

Report attached.

In accordance with Regulation 11 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, approval had been given by Councillor Jodi Clements, Chair of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to the following decision being made by Cabinet on 4^th  December 2024, under the special urgency provisions for key decisions, on the grounds that the decision was urgent and could not reasonably be deferred.

Members considered a report of Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP, Leader of the Council, about proposed changes to planning policies in relation to Houses in Multiple Occupation and Children’s Care Homes.

Councillor Dad provided a brief introduction to the report and thanked planning officers Simon Prideaux and Shanshan Chen, who had drafted the report and who were in attendance.  The report presented the draft versions of:

• The evidence base document supporting the need for an Article 4 Direction that would remove permitted development rights for small houses in multiple occupation in nine wards in Hyndburn.

• Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) on Houses in Multiple Occupation that would be used to help determine planning applications for Houses in Multiple Occupation, and;

• Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) on Children’s Care Homes that would be used to help determine planning applications for Children’s Care Homes.

Cabinet was being asked to agree to undertake the necessary consultations, as the first step towards the Council being more readily able to manage these types of developments in the Borough.

Councillors Aziz, Walsh, Parkins, Fisher and Khan spoke in favour of the proposals.  Councillor Khan queried whether the choice of wards might appear to be politically motivated and whether it might have been more advantageous to apply the Article 4 Direction across the whole Borough.  Councillor Dad responded that the choice of wards was purely evidence based.  Officers responded that the proposed changes were being consulted upon and that the evidence report was a live document.  The wards covered and the relevant polices could be reviewed and adjusted as necessary after a period of time to reflect any change in circumstances.  The approval of the Secretary of State was required for the proposed Article 4 Direction and this was unlikely to be granted for the whole Borough on the current evidence.

Approval of the report was deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

Over the past 18 months the Council had seen a significant increase in the number of planning applications for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO’s) and for Children’s Care Homes.  These applications had given rise to objections from neighbouring residents and concerns about the impact that large numbers of care homes and children’s homes would have on an area.

One of the shared aims of the Corporate Strategy (2023-2028) and the adopted Hyndburn Core Strategy was to provide for a greater choice and quality of housing in the Borough.  To help deliver this objective the Core Strategy set out a number of key priorities:

• To provide sufficient housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 256