Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies (Regulation 18)

Object

Representation ID: 549

Received: 22/12/2023

Respondent: Goldfinch Town Planning Services (West Midlands)

Goldfinch Town Planning Services has concerns that highly onerous Climate Change Net Zero policies are being taken forward within the emerging Local Plan Review which will place a financially damaging burden on new housing development proposals coming forward at a time when the house building construction industry is operating within a severe 300-year-economicrecession event climate, and at a time when the construction industry is being adversely affected by prolonged and stubbornly high interest rates, high inflation, high energy costs, and at a time when the construction industry is facing a huge spike in the financial costs of both building materials and significant increases in skilled construction labour costs. This will all mean that the financial viability of all new housing development schemes coming forward across the Dudley Metropolitan Borough and wider Black Country sub-region will be severely affected and very finely balanced from a financial viability perspective. The Council should ensure that the approach taken towards Local Plan preparation is based on the most up-to-date and robust economic evidence in order for the Plan making approach to respond effectively to paragraphs 31 and 82 (indent d) of the Revised NPPF (2023).