A report by the Deputy Chief Executive/Director of Corporate Services informed Members of the findings of the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) produced by Roger Tym and Partners (RTP) on behalf of the Council as part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework for Wirral to meet the requirements of national policy.

Members were informed that the SHLAA was a technical background document required to consider all available sites in the Borough that may be suitable to deliver new housing development. It would be used to inform the Council’s future development strategy and the future allocation of housing land. Theinclusion of a site in the SHLAA was not a Council endorsement of its future development and did not prejudice decisions to be taken by the Council in relation to preferred directions of growth in the Core Strategy, site identification in site-specific Development Plan Documents or the determination of individual planning applications.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the findings of the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment attached to this report be used to inform the content of the emerging Core Strategy Development Plan Document;

(2)  the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment Report and Appendices attached to the report be published for public consultation alongside the Core Strategy Preferred Options Report; and

(3)  Cabinet recommends to Council that the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment be approved as a material consideration for use by Planning Committee in the determination of planning applications.