North Northamptonshire Annual Monitoring Report 2010-11

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8.
8. CONCLUSIONS
This is the third joint Annual Monitoring Report prepared for the Joint Planning Committee and the district/
borough planning authorities of North Northamptonshire. It is beginning to build a picture of the situation with
implementation of the North Northamptonshire Core Spatial Strategy (NNCSS), with the 2009 AMR providing the
benchmark position against which future trends can be assessed.
A new CDPSmart monitoring system has been fully established throughout North Northamptonshire this year but
the availability of meaningful and current data is a matter that still needs to be addressed at a corporate level by
the local authorities. More integration can be achieved through closer working with agencies. A review of the way
measures and targets are framed is being undertaken as part of the NNCSS review.
A range of indicators have been selected to gauge progress in the key policy areas of Spatial Strategy; Economy
and Town Centres; Housing; Environmental Quality; and Infrastructure. Most of the indicators are derived from
the Output Indicators that planning authorities have been previously required to monitor by Government. The
remaining indicators are drawn from the monitoring framework in the NNCSS and from the Sustainability
Appraisal of the NNCSS.
The monitoring year 2010/11 saw the continuation of the economic recession. Although the impacts of this will
take time to feed through into some indicators, it has had a marked impact on performance against housing and
economic indicators. This in turn has impacted on other indicators, for example the percentage of (publically
funded) affordable housing built has increased in part as a result of total completions falling.
NNDC and the districts have worked proactively with the developers, Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and the
Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to boost housing delivery in the recession by securing additional public
sector investment. Successful bids under the HCA ‘Kickstart ’programme for stalled sites have boosted housing
completions in 2010/11 and will continue to do so in 2011/12. The districts have also worked with RSLs and the
HCA to increase affordable housing delivery despite the reduction in overall housing completions.
The proactive planning and delivery work undertaken in North Northamptonshire will facilitate a speedy recovery
of the housing market when demand starts to pick up. However it must be recognised that prospects for the
housing market, and therefore the rate of house building that will be sustained in North Northamptonshire, are
uncertain. Whilst the housing trajectory incorporates assumptions on the phasing of development on individual
sites, it is inevitably more an assessment of what is possible rather than what is probable in the short term given
the state of the housing market. For that reason, Indicators relating to the achievement of the overall plan target
to 2021, and the managed delivery target to get there, have been shown as having insufficient information to
make an assessment.
Strategic Planning for the Districts and Boroughs of Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough & East Northamptonshire