Decision details

The Cabinet considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) that sought approval for the publication of Oldham Council’s Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2024.

The report provided an update on the Housing Delivery Test (HDT) position in respect of Oldham. It also sets out an updated position to the previously published Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2022.

The HDT had been introduced by the Government as a monitoring tool to demonstrate whether local areas are building enough homes to meet their housing need. The HDT measures net additional dwellings provided over the past three years against the homes required over the same period. To account for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on local planning authority services and the construction sector, adjustments were made to the housing requirement used for the years 2019/20 and 2020/21 as part of the HDT result. The thresholds for consequences for under-delivery remained as per the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

The latest HDT results for 2022 (and which were also reported in the HDT Action Plan 2024) were published on 19^th December 2023.

As per the latest measurement, Oldham has delivered 91% of its housing need over the past three years (2019/20 to 2021/22). This is the same as the 2021 result (91%) and an improvement from the 2020 result of 80%.

The pass rate for the HDT was 95%. There are consequences of not achieving 95% in the HDT that required some form of action, as set out in the NPPF.

As Oldham had delivered 91% of the housing required, the Council was required to prepare an Action Plan to address housing delivery. Oldham’s previous Action Plan was published in September 2022, as such it was proposed to update the Action Plan as required. Action Plans should be published within six months from the measurement publication date.

This was Oldham Council’s fourth Action Plan, drawn up in response to the Housing Delivery Test: 2022 Measurement, published in December 2023. It provided an update on previously published Action Plans and included information on:

• the root causes for housing under-delivery within Oldham (contained in Part 1); and
• how the council intends to improve delivery (contained in Part 2).

Options/Alternatives considered:

Option 1 – To approve the Housing Delivery Action Plan 2024 for publication in line with the requirements of the Housing Delivery Test: 2022 Measurement results (published December 2023). 

Option 2 – To not approve the Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2024 for publication. This would not comply with the requirements of the Housing Delivery Test Rule Book and the Housing Delivery Test: 2022 Measurement results (published December 2023).

Resolved:

That Cabinet approves Option 1, as detailed in the submitted report - the Housing Delivery Action Plan 2024 (Part One and Part Two) for publication in line with the requirements of the Housing Delivery Test: 2022 Measurement results (published December 2023), to comply with national planning policy requirements.