Dec 2010 - South Worcestershire Development Plan

SOUTH WORCESTERSHIRE ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT 20101847 Conclusions and limitations to monitoring7.1 Monitoring has demonstrated that the City has performed stronglyacross almost all the Core Output Indicators this year. Overall theplanning system in Worcester is performing well and achievingmeasurable successes.7.2 However, as the economic outlook changes, development pressure onprotected employment sites is likely to increase as developers seek toretain profitability margins on retained sites. Similarly, the length andseverity of a possible economic downturn is likely to affect the buildrate of housing schemes, as we have seen with the slowdown on largesites such as Diglis and Royal Worcester Porcelain.7.3 In this report’s projected five year housing land supply we havedemonstrated that the City will meet its proposed Regional SpatialStrategy ‘Option 2’ targets ahead of schedule and is progressing wellwith the commitment to build further affordable housing contained inthe Balanced Housing markets Development Plan Document.7.4 With regard to Worcester growth as a whole, including the urbanextensions within the Malvern Hills and Wychavon administrativeboundaries, a five year land supply calculation will be required beforelong. Therefore, extensive work on this needs to be done over the nexttwelve months in conjunction with the other districts in order to producea meaningful calculation that will inform on the expected phasing of thisdevelopment over the plan period.7.5 The Annual Monitoring Report 2010 has continued to report on all newmonitoring requirements detailed in the “Core Output Indicators Update2/2008” published by the DCLG in July 2008. This will be particularlyuseful in moving forward the monitoring role within the emerging SouthWorcestershire Joint Core Strategy.