A report asking the Committee to consider whether eligibility tests or fees should be introduced in determining planning applications for self-build homes.

The Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report asking the Committee to consider whether eligibility tests or fees should be introduced in determining planning applications for self-build homes.

The report stated that there was a statutory requirement for the Council to maintain a Self-Build Register, which listed those who had registered an interest in building their own home in the Borough.  Reading’s Self-Build Register had been in existence since 2015, but up to the current time the Council had not sought to apply any eligibility tests or charge a fee.  The report considered whether such tests or fees should be introduced, particularly since the number of entries on the Register might have implications for the Council’s functions, mainly in determining planning applications.

The legislation enabled authorities to charge a fee for entry onto the Register, but given that the number of new entrants each year onto the Register would be relatively small, averaging one per week for the previous three years, and could potentially decline with the introduction of local eligibility tests, the report recommended that introducing a charge would not be worthwhile.  The Council had also received New Burdens Funding from Government which was of a level that would cover most of the costs of maintaining the Register in the first year.

The report explained that the specific criteria that had been proposed for a Local Connection test were that an applicant should:

• Have lived in the Borough for at least two years; and/or
• Have been in full-time employment (greater than 16 hours per week) within the Borough for at least two years; and/or
• Have an immediate family member who had lived in the Borough for the previous five years (immediate family were defined as a close relative, limited to spouse/partner, parent, sibling or adult child).

The report recommended that delegated authority be granted to the Head of Planning, Development and Regulatory Services to make amendments to the specific criteria above in order to respond to issues that might arise through operation of the criteria.  Those that did not pass a local connection test would still be included on the Register, but the Register would then be split into Part 1 and Part 2, with Part 1 containing the list of those who had passed the test and it would be only Part 1 which would be counted for the ‘duty to grant permission’.

The Council was not required to specifically justify requiring a test of sufficient resources, although applying such a test was logical as it would ensure that those on the Register were those who would be in a position to actually build if a plot were available, rather than those with only a passing interest in self-build.  The report therefore recommended that a test of sufficient resources should be introduced which would require applicants to demonstrate that they had, or would be able to access, funds to purchase land worth £75,000 (the likely estimated minimum cost of purchasing a self-build plot of land in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40