Housing
supply helps us to deliver on our key priorities that we have set out in the
Kirklees Economic Strategy, and housing and business growth will help Kirklees
to become more resilient and be better equipped for future challenges. The
Housing proposals within the Local Plan are an important step on that journey.
In Conclusion -The Local Plan provides a policy framework and allocates land to help partners, communities, businesses and the Council to work together to grow Kirklees and help it to become a great place to invest, work, live and play.
Housing
delivery in Kirklees has been underperforming for many years and unless we
build more homes of the types that we need, and respond to needs in different
areas in Kirklees, we cannot meet the housing needs of the district. The
Strategic Housing Market Assessment (or ‘SHMA’) evidences the need to build 1700
new homes every year. In recent years affordable housing delivery has averaged
only 178 units per year!
Until we
accelerate housing supply, partners working with the Council will not be able
to address the scale of the challenge and deliver the new homes that we need.
Having a supply of new homes is essential to building stable communities and improving
our residents’ health and well-being, particularly where we can also achieve a
pipeline of affordable housing- The Local Plan is an important step on that
journey.
Housing is part of the broader business economy and it will
help to build better places and life chances for our residents. Here in
Kirklees over 60% of
households earn less than £26,000 a year, so in return for allocating sites in
the Local Plan, we need partners’ help and innovation to provide a broad range
of homes in the housing ladder that are financially accessible. We need to
provide access to affordable housing for households whose life chances, health
and wellbeing will be helped by being able to access an affordable home to rent
or buy.
It’s easy to
forget that housing is also a key economic driver and for every £1m invested in
housing, 7 full time, and 5 part time jobs are generated. So we need people who will build the
houses, People need to furnish their homes; they need services, shops and
leisure; and we want people to earn, and spend their money in the area too.
In Conclusion -The Local Plan provides a policy framework and allocates land to help partners, communities, businesses and the Council to work together to grow Kirklees and help it to become a great place to invest, work, live and play.
