A report by the Director of Regeneration, Housing and Planning sought approval for a Draft Core Strategy to be published for public comment.  The Cabinet was informed that the comments received would be reported back to it before the Core Strategy was submitted to the Secretary of State for public examination by an Independent Planning Inspector.  The Cabinet noted that the Council’s Constitution required both the publication and submission of the Draft Core Strategy to be approved by the Council.

The Director informed that the Core Strategy would assist in the delivery of corporate priorities related to Your Neighbourhood and Your Economy.  The Cabinet noted that once adopted, the Core Strategy would replace the strategic policies contained within the Unitary Development Plan that had been adopted in February 2000.

Councillor Pat Hackett raised concerns that planning policy was being revoked which could have implications on greenbelt land.  He asked Officers to take all necessary steps to try to ensure that the greenbelt was not eroded.

The Cabinet turned its attention to the proposed Wirral Waters development noting that, ideally, it would be helpful for Peel Holdings to begin work on the residential development within the next five years.  Members agreed to encourage and support Peel with this in anyway that it could.

The Cabinet noted, in particular, that the Council’s Housing Strategy Team had advised that the relaxation of restrictions on development outside regeneration priority areas could have a detrimental affect on the attractiveness of existing, cleared sites within Wirral’s former HMRI boundary where the market for new housing was already weak.  This would represent a major risk to the delivery of Wirral’s new-build housing programme with Lovell and Keepmoat, with implications for the funding agreement with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which was based on pre-agreed outputs for new-build starts and completions.

Councillor Phil Davies asked how Members could ensure that HMRI sites could be regenerated in the future and if they could put any measures in place.

The Head of Regeneration and Planning who had presented the Director’s report informed that regeneration had been focused on HMRI areas and this would continue through the Council’s ongoing work.  Finance was the problem in terms of building houses and providing mortgages.  If the Council was able to put financial support mechanisms in place it would be helpful.  The Council wanted to see appropriate sites developed to create the right environment to assist the provision of housing on those sites.  The Council was in challenging circumstances at present and wanted to see the east of the borough and Wirral as a whole prosper.

The Cabinet noted from the Director’s report that the 2011 Census, had shown the first recorded growth in Wirral’s population since 1971.  In Wirral’s case, this had meant that there were 13,100 additional people and 5,000 additional households within the Borough than were previously projected for mid-2011.  Given this unexpected increase in population and households, there was currently no reliable alternative basis for projecting future household  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92