Issues and Options for the Ipswich Local Plan Review

Comment

Representation ID: 25357

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

Good network of parks and greenspaces.
Good transport links by rail to London and road via the A12 and A14 which can encourage business growth.
Mixed economy of office, industrial uses and working docks.
University that can educate a local workforce.
House prices in the Borough are not as high as other nearby areas in Essex, West and East Suffolk and Cambridgeshire making the town more affordable and thereby assisting businesses in recruiting staff. The provision of new housing to meet the objectively assessed need of the housing market area will ensure that housing remains affordable.

Comment

Representation ID: 25358

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

The town has not reached its potential in terms of retail or employment growth. The amount and type of new housing delivered in the Borough has been constrained for many years with under provision of good quality family housing as a result of the focus on high density development. This has constrained retail and employment growth. If projects like the northern fringe had been started say 15-20 years earlier then the growth of housing would have helped enhance the town centre through increased demand for retail services, and would have improved the local employment base by providing a greater workforce.

Comment

Representation ID: 25359

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

The employment and retail offer of the town will have grown supported by housing growth at a level to meet the objectively assessed need and of housing types that meet local needs and the development of which is not constrained by administrative boundaries.

Comment

Representation ID: 25360

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

With the progress towards Norfolk and Suffolk devolution Scenario C High Increase in Growth is preferred. This will deliver housing that will contribute to funding infrastructure that the area needs, it will deliver affordable housing and will deliver economic growth.

Comment

Representation ID: 25361

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

Allocating and delivering more housing sites will lead to higher levels of affordable housing provision as affordable housing is provided as a percentage of any development. Many larger brownfield sites that are existing employment sites will have high remediation costs that will reduce the amount of affordable housing that is deliverable.

Comment

Representation ID: 25362

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

If the conclusion of the recent Local Plan examination was that housing needs to 2031 could not be met within the Borough, then housing needs to 2036 cannot be met within the Borough. The Duty to Co-operate is clear in national planning policy and legal precedent, and in the conclusions of the examination and local planning policies CS6 and CS7. The only sound option for housing growth is therefore to look to neighbouring Districts to meet the Objectively Assessed Need.

Comment

Representation ID: 25363

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

The slowdown in development of high density development in Ipswich shows that the viability of high density development in the Borough of Ipswich is an issue.

Comment

Representation ID: 25364

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

Ipswich Borough Council should look to sustainable locations with good infrastructure, high accessibility and connectivity to Ipswich. For example neighbouring satellite villages around Ipswich such as Claydon, Sproughton and Wherstead can assist in delivering the housing growth to meet the objectively assessed need for housing in the Borough. These areas are well connected to the town. Another example is the need for liaison with Suffolk Coastal District Council on the potential of growth corridors to the Felixstowe Peninsular, and along the A12 corridor around Saxmundham which can deliver housing growth.

Comment

Representation ID: 25365

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

With a high jobs target a wide variety of employment land is needed to provide flexibility in the employment land market. The requirements of businesses vary significantly and to meet the jobs target an over provision of employment land is required. This approach was found sound in the recent local plan examination in the Borough.

Comment

Representation ID: 25367

Received: 30/10/2017

Respondent: Pigeon Investment Management Ltd

To achieve employment growth targets a wide range of employment sites are required. There is little countryside in the Borough that is accessible and developable. Given the demand for housing in the last 20 years the delivery of sites in the Borough which have not been taken up over this period should be questioned. The only remaining option to meet the Objectively Assessed Need for housing is to develop land outside the Borough in neighbouring Districts