WEST MIDLANDS REGIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY

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WEST MIDLANDS REGIONAL SPATIAL STRATEGY

• STAKEHOLDERS MONITORING
• CONFERENCE

8th September 2008
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Introduction

• Mark Middleton
• Policy Director
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

8th September 2008
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Objectives of this morning

• To assist delegates form a view as to whether the
  key aims of the RSS Urban and Rural Renaissance
  are being achieved
• To give delegates a view of how the key policies
  in each area are progressing
• To encourage discussion of monitoring outcomes
  within the Regional community
• To enable discussion of implications
  (particularly for RSS Review, implementation and
  future monitoring)
• To enable stakeholders to contribute to Policy
  Leads understanding of the data and findings

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Importance of this morning

• To contribute to the two-way communication
  between those responsible for developing the
  Regional Spatial Strategy and the wider regional
  community
• In advance of the Examination in Public next
  Spring it is vital that we have a shared view of
  how the RSS is progressing across the region.
  Todays event will be an important factor in
  developing that shared view.

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Monitoring Overview

• Amanda Turner
• Monitoring Policy Lead
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

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Introduction

• Purpose of today is to discuss monitoring
  findings of 2007 RSS AMR (06/07 monitoring year)
• Important to discuss issues particularly in the
  light of the forthcoming Phase 2 Public
  Examination
• A lot of good work going on in understanding the
  Regional position on progress towards RSS
• Need to focus back on the issues take a step
  aside from discussions on SNR process

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Duties of the RPB (WMRA)

• Duty under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase
  Act (2004) to keep under review the RSS
• Specifically, to monitor the implementation of
  the RSS throughout the Region
• Prepare an Annual Monitoring Report covering the
  last 12 month period submit end of Feb
• Need to look if policies are on track, if not
  reasons why and actions to be taken (Good
  Practice Guidance, 2005)

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2007 Annual Monitoring Round

• Successful monitoring year- thanks to everyone
  involved
• A lot of hard work
  LPA input (11 surveys),
  Worcestershire CC (residential land), Mott
  MacDonald (other surveys), Regional Partners
  (supplementary data), WMRO (urban and rural
  renaissance), RSS policy leads (analysis of data)
  
• AMR submitted on time by 28th February to CLG
  
  

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2007 Annual Monitoring Report

• Sets out progress towards the RSS policies
• Based on the currently published RSS framework
  June 2004 (Jan 2008 not available at time)
• Covers Communities for the Future (housing),
  Prosperity for All (employment, retail and
  offices), Environment and Transportation,
  Progress Towards Urban and Rural Renaissance.
• Change of format hard copy summary report,
  main chapters and data annexes on CD

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2007 Supplementary Reports

• Produced to provide more detail than main AMR
• Housing Summary Report (2007) updates the 2006
  Report. Covers RSS and RHS issues including
  housing market, affordability etc.
• Regional Employment Land Study market trends,
  employment land development and supply. Detailed
  analysis and sub-regional focus
• Greenbelt developments within GB and greenbelt
  changes

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Future Issues on Monitoring

• World is changing in relation to the
  Sub-National Review of Economic Development and
  Regeneration
• Need to bring together RSS and RES monitoring
• Regional players and structures and processes
  may change
• Need to build on good practice already
  established
• Still a need to monitor and retain a robust
  evidence base keep going for now

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Contextual Monitoring Overview Progress
towards Urban and Rural Renaissance

• Stephen Howarth
• West Midlands Regional Observatory

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Reminder of definitions

• Urban renaissance developing the major urban
  areas in such a way that they can increasingly
  meet more of their own economic and social needs
  in order to counter the unsustainable outward
  movement of people and jobs
• Rural renaissance supporting rural communities
  to achieve their economic and social potential
  whilst embracing the challenges of access and
  climate change

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Our approach

• Based on DEFRA Urban/Rural Definitions
• Urban combines Major Urban Large Urban
• Rural combines Rural-50 Rural-80
• Key indicators selected based upon earlier
  contextual monitoring work
• Comparing urban and rural and trends over time

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Population and migration

• Regional population has grown steadily since 2001
  now 5.4 million
• Migration from urban to rural areas continues but
  the flow has slowed in recent years
• Young adults tend to move in the other direction
  so growing gap in age profiles
• Net migration out of the region to elsewhere in
  the UK but into the region from overseas

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(No Transcript)
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Progress towards urban renaissance

• Some signs of improvement but progress slow
• Rate of out-migration slowing
• Education performance improving faster than rural
  areas but skill levels overall show little change
• Business start ups increasing but still behind
  rural areas
• House prices have risen but affordability still
  better than in rural areas
• Knowledge employment has increased but not as
  quickly as in rural areas and worklessness still
  high
• In-commuters still earn more than local residents

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Progress towards rural renaissance

• Some improvements but still problem areas
• In-migration continues and population ageing
  faster than in urban areas
• Increased employment in knowledge industries and
  growth in business start-ups
• Increased ICT adoption broadband up-take now
  higher than urban areas
• Average salaries for local jobs are much lower
  than those of commuters
• Housing affordability continued to worsen
• Many key services are becoming less accessible in
  some areas

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Communities for the Future

• Clive Lloyd
• Housing Monitoring Policy Lead
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

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Regional housing trajectory based upon net
housing completions
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Survey, 2007
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Housing trajectory for the Major Urban Areas
based upon net housing completions
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Survey, 2007
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Housing trajectory for Other Areas based upon
net housing completions
Other Areas refers to areas outside the Major
Urban Areas.
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Survey, 2007
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Performance v RSS net assumptions
Net completions v RSS net annual assumptions,
West Midlands Region, 2006/7
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Affordable housing completions
Number of affordable housing completions
Sources Regional Housing Land Availability
Surveys, 2005-7, and Housing Corporation, 2005-7
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Use of previously developed land based upon
completions gross
Proportion of housing by land type
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Surveys, 2001/2 and 2006/7
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Land coming forward based upon the number of
commitments gross
Committed land supply
This figure includes those more speculative
sites entered in the Any other commitments
section.
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Surveys, 2005/6 and 2006/7
Total new supply
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Surveys, 2005/6 and 2006/7
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Dwelling type and size houses and flats
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Survey, 2006/7
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Change in property prices by dwelling type
Data is based on sales entered on the Land
Registry database by 20 June 2008. Sales will
continue to be added for a period of time, and
this will affect the final mean house price
figure.
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Survey, 2006/7
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Estimated future completions gross and net
Housing completions, actual 2006/7 and estimated
for 2007/8 and 2008/9
The 2007/8 estimated figures use provisional
results from the 2008 Residential Land
Availability Survey. In 2007/8 there was an
average fall of 7.2 in the number of gross
completions in the West Midlands Region
(excluding Walsall and Staffordshire for whom
data was not available at the time of writing).
There was an average fall of 4.6 in net
completions. These figures have been applied to
the 2007 completions figures for the West
Midlands to derive estimates for the region.
The 2009 estimated figures assume a 30 fall in
completions on the 2007 figures, in line with
recent reports from house builders.
Source Regional Housing Land Availability
Surveys, 2007-8
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Prosperity for All

• David Carter / Martin Eade
• Employment Land / Centres Policy Leads
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

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Scope

• Covers
• Employment Land
• Centres
• Some key trends
• Headline issues relating to RSS policies

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Employment Land Development
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Employment Land Development by Use Class
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Employment Land Development in RZs
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Employment Land Supply
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Large Sites
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Employment Land - Headlines - 1

• Employment land development averaged 233 ha since
  2000, with 201 ha 2006/07
• MUAs the focus (35) of employment land
  development since 2000 completions outside the
  settlement hierarchy declining legacy issues
• Performance varies between the various urban RZs.
  Recently completions in the rural zone have been
  improving
• HTCs, focus this far on bringing forward land,
  development rates should now increase

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Employment Land - Headlines - 2

• Supply issues continue to require attention
  especially in some areas (esp the Black Country)
  need for larger, more attractive locally
  significant sites that are readily available
• Continuing threat posed by higher value
  alternative uses as employment land lost (c200 ha
  pa)
• RIS existing and emerging sites suggest few
  major supply problems, at least in the short to
  medium term
• MIS Wobaston Road
• RLS Existing supply is running out and future
  supply needs addressing with some urgency

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Centres - Retail - Completions Commitments
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Centres - Offices - Completions Commitments
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Centres Headlines

• There is a healthy retail pipeline but retail
  development levels are currently at their lowest
  for some years with no major schemes under
  construction.
• The retail pipeline continues to show a strong
  preponderance towards in-centre development and
  there have been no recent major out-of-centre
  completions.
• The proportion of in/edge-of-centre office
  completions increased last year but remained
  below 50.
• The office pipeline continues to be dominated by
  out-of-centre commitments only Birmingham has a
  significant supply of in/edge-of-centre sites.

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Quality of the Environment

• Maurice Barlow
• Quality of the Environment Policy Lead
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

8th September 2008
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DERELICT LAND

• continued reduction in area of derelict land
• reclamation level 2nd highest since 2001
• majority of derelict land and reclamation in
  Shires
• reclamation for green space concentrated in
  major urban areas

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ENERGY AND WATER

• continued decline in renewable energy generating
  capacity
• reversal in trend of reduction in numbers of
  permissions granted contrary to flood risk advice
  (05-06)
• more recent flood risk figures show more positive
  longer term trend resumed (06-07)
• insufficient data from water quality survey

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MINERALS AND WASTE

• continued reduction in sales of sand gravel,
  fall in crushed rock sales
• no new data for secondary/recycled aggregates
• positive progress in municipal and household
  waste management
• good progress in establishing mechanisms to help
  deliver additional waste management facilities

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BUILT AND NATURAL HERITAGE

• fall in number of buildings at risk, but still
  one of highest rates in England
• improvement in quality of SSSIs stalled
• declining trend in woodland grant scheme planting
• latest Green Belt data shows fall in number of
  applications/permissions

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KEY IMPLICATIONS

• rate of reuse of brownfield land too low to
  deliver higher growth
• need for step change in renewable energy
  generating capacity
• significant need for new waste management
  capacity
• watching brief in trend for flood risk
  permissions
• need for stronger more integrated policy guidance
  in Phase 3

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Transport and Accessibility

• Peter Davenport
• Transport and Accessibility Policy Lead
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

8th September 2008
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• T1 (Developing Accessibility and Mobility to
  Support the Spatial Strategy)
• Locational policies for new development are
  largely on track particularly with regard to
  MUAs.
• T2 (Reducing the Need to Travel)
• Exceeded the target - Almost two-thirds (63) of
  schools have travel plans - well above the
  national figure (56).
• The number of WTPs is constantly increasing
• T3 (Walking and Cycling)
• There has been a reduction in mileage walked to
  165 miles, which is the lowest value of any
  English region and is nearly one-fifth (18)
  lower than the average for England.
• Walking accounts for 10 of travel to work
  journeys both in England and the Region.

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• T3 (Walking and Cycling) Continued
• Cycling accounts for 2 of travel to work
  journeys, compared to 3 for England.
• Why is this the case in the West Midlands?
• T4 (Promoting Travel Awareness)
• Same as T2.
• T5 (Public Transport)
• Bus patronage has declined by 11.6 since
  2001/02, at a greater rate than the national
  average for English regions outside London
  (2.5).
• Metro patronage has fallen between 2005/06 and
  2006/07 from 5.2 million to 4.9 million. It is
  unlikely that the WMRSS target will be achieved.
• Rail patronage continues to grow (23.8 from
  2001/02) at a rate in excess of the national
  average (7.7).

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• T5 (Public Transport) Continued
• Why has bus patronage in the West Midlands
  declined at a much greater rate than the national
  average?
• T6 (Strategic Park and Ride)
• The number of metropolitan rail stations with car
  parks increased to 37 between 2002-2007, and the
  number of spaces increased by 29.8 to 6,186.
• Weekday occupancy levels have remained steady at
  around 80 to 85. However, usage of park and
  ride varies considerably by line.
• Achieving the target will require a higher rate
  of increase in spaces.
• T7 (Car Parking Standards and Management)

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• T8 (Demand Management)
• T9 (The Management and Development of National
  and Regional Transport Networks)
• As part of the Partial Revision, the Assembly is
  developing a variety of congestion indicators
  based on satellite tracking data.
• T10 (Freight)
• No indicators specified.
• The Regional Freight Strategy (spring 2007).
• T11 (Airports)
• Birmingham International Airport achieved its
  target.
• T12 (Priorities for Investment)
• Good progress continued to be made, including
  West Coast Mainline improvements, funding for
  M54/M6/M6 Toll Link, completion of A500
  Stoke-on-Trent junctions funding for New Street

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Urban and Rural Renaissance

• An effective and efficient transport system can
  make a major contribution to renaissance
• Locational policies are beginning to work
• Public transport accessibility has reached
  unprecedented levels
• But still need to address underlying trends

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Implications of Key Findings

• RSS 2 indicators will provide a better link to
  outcomes
• Substantial progress is evident in some targets.
• Progress was not evident in all targets,
  especially T5 (Bus and Metro patronage). Why?
• Successful achievement will rely on the full
  implementation and promotion of the RSS by all
  partners including support from the public.
• Unclear whether there is this commitment.
• How do we develop a broader public consensus of
  the challenges?

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2010 and Beyond

• Mark Middleton
• Policy Director
• West Midlands Regional Assembly

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The year ahead

• RSS Phase 2 Timetable
• RSS Phase 3 Timetable
• The Examination in Public

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2010 and beyond

• The Sub National Review
• The Single Integrated Regional Strategy
• New Monitoring Arrangements

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Contact details
8th September 2008