Nottingham’s new target of 26,000 new homes by 2041 seen as ‘minimum’ by council

Nottingham’s new Government target to build more than 26,000 extra homes in less than 20 years is being seen as a “minimum”, the council says.

In a bid to meet future housing demand and Whitehall orders, four local councils have been working on a plan to make sure they can deliver enough homes by 2041.

The ‘Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan’ will cover the areas of Nottingham City Council, Broxtowe Borough Council, Gedling Borough Council, and Rushcliffe Borough Council.

All have agreed to work together to best plan how to spread development across Nottingham and make sure it is built on time and in the most suitable places.

The Government uses a process called the ‘standard method’ to assess local housing need, taking into account expected household growth and historic under-supply.

Under the former Conservative Government, the method had applied an arbitrary 35 per cent increase to Nottingham’s housing need because it is classed as one of the largest urban local councils in the country.

Consequently, Nottingham city’s target had been increased to 32,868 homes up to 2041.

However the council branded it unachievable due to tight boundaries, and previously said it would fall short of the target by 6,000 homes.

Under the new Labour Government, the city’s housing target through to 2041 has since been cut to 26,118 new homes across 28.8 square-miles.

Cllr Linda Woodings (Lab), executive member for finance, says the council had managed to identify room for 26,690 homes.

“That actually slightly exceeds the new draft housing needs set by the Government’s standard method of 26,118,” she said during an Executive Board meeting on Tuesday (October 22), where councillors agreed to send the plan out to public consultation.

“As you will know there was a bit of controversy about housing targets over the past few years.

“Lots of cities found housing targets were arbitrarily increased by 35 per cent by the previous government and they have now been realigned back on the standard method of calculation.

“In Nottingham over the last five years we have met the increase of more than 1,600 homes per year and every year for the last five years we have exceeded our housebuilding targets.

“We see the targets as a minimum, not a maximum, and I think that mindset is something we would urge other local authorities to adopt as well.”

The total housing target between 2023 and 2041 for all four council areas is a minimum of 54,670 homes.

In Nottingham there are three major sites where housing is being, or is intended to be, developed.

More than 6,300 new homes were delivered in Nottingham between 2018 and 2022, and it is expected a further 5,804 will be needed between 2024 and 2028 as the authority chases down its end goal in 2041.

Due to the city’s tight boundaries, there is a focus on regenerating brownfield sites.

In total 1,000 homes are planned on the wider Broadmarsh site, 500 on Stanton Tip, in Hempshill Vale, a remaining 397 homes on the Broxtowe section of the Boots site, and a further 216 homes on the Nottingham section.

Each council is currently at the stage of putting the draft plan out to consultation, before it goes to the Planning Inspectorate for independent examination.