ENV43

Policy: ENV43 - Environment Policy 43

Environment Policy 43: The Department will generally support proposals which seek to regenerate run-down urban and rural areas. Such proposals will normally be set in the context of regeneration strategies identified in the associated Area Plans. The Department will encourage the re-use of sound built fabric, rather than its demolition.

CHAPTER 8

HOUSING

CONTENTS

• 8.1 Introduction
• 8.2 Existing and Past Development
• 8.3 Future Housing Strategy
• 8.4 The Need for Housing
• 8.5 Distribution of Housing
• 8.6 Affordable Housing
• 8.7 New Housing in Existing Settlements
• 8.8 Groups of Houses in the Countryside
• 8.9 New Agricultural Dwellings
• 8.10 Conversion of Rural Buildings to Dwellings
• 8.11 Replacement Dwellings in the Countryside
• 8.12 Extensions to Residential Property
• 8.13 Conversion of Buildings to Flats
• 8.14 Loss of Housing

CHAPTER 8

HOUSING

8.1 Introduction

8.1.1 The principal objective of the Government's housing policy is to ensure that sufficient housing, to appropriate standards, is made available to meet demands created by the growth in population and changing household sizes.

8.1.2 This provision should be made having regard not only to the other objectives of this Plan, but also to the aspirations of the population to live in particular parts of the Island.

8.1.3 The Department has not prepared an urban capacity study (1) for the Isle of Man Strategic Plan for it is judged that the detailed assessment of residential land availability is best addressed as part of the preparation of the Area Plans. The Department has, however, as part of the Review, carried out or enhanced a number of different elements of work to ensure that sufficient housing opportunities will be available to accommodate the predicted level of population growth. The Department has:

1. monitored planning approval data since 2001 for new residential dwellings as well as residential land availability through the Residential Land Availability Study (RLAS) and subsequent Updates. (2) The RLAS work includes analysis of take-up rates, conversions and windfalls(3). This work has provided key evidence and baseline data;
2. analysed the 2011 Population Projections produced following the 2011 Census which included making informed assumptions about future household size;
3. considered the character of the settlements across the Island, their proximity to employment centres and the implications of additional housing on the strategic highway network; and
4. undertaken an exercise to identify potential broad development opportunities. This exercise did not serve to replace or negate the need for an Area Plan but it gave a level of reassurance that the predicted level of population growth and additional households that this represented could at least, in theory, be accommodated in line with the existing Island Spatial Strategy as set out in Chapter 5.

8.1.4 Together, the above work undertaken by the Department will ensure that sufficient opportunities are made available to meet the predicted level of population growth. In terms of the planning approval data, the RLAS work examined all planning approvals for new dwellings since 2001 and identified all land zoned for residential development on extant Plans. Further details are set out in Chapter 5 and later in this Chapter. The published RLAS data set currently covers the period 2001 to 2013, but as the year 2011 marks the start of the new Plan period, conclusions about the data set both up to, and after 2011, were drawn accordingly. The RLAS data set, which includes analysis of conversions and windfalls, has enabled the spatial distribution of the all-Island housing figure to be calculated.

8.1.5 The publication of the findings of the 2011 Census, provided an opportunity to review the Isle of Man population and household projections over the next 15 years. The updated figures are set out in Table 8.3. Following analysis of: the predicted population growth, the likely scenarios for household change, an allowance for vacant properties (a vacancy factor), the take-up of planning approvals and the potential opportunities across the four Area Plan areas in the future, the Department has determined that it is necessary to plan for 5100 additional dwellings over the Plan period 2011 to 2026.

8.1.6 The Area Plans will need to ensure that there is enough flexibility to react to pressures relating to both supply and demand. Site allocations known as Strategic Reserves are likely to be used in the Area Plans for this very purpose. The Area Plan for the South identified two Strategic Reserve sites for housing. The difference between the Reserve Sites and general allocations is that the Reserve Sites are not for immediate release. They will only be released when the Department is certain that there is a need for them and a defined methodology included within the Area Plan has been followed. All Reserve Sites will have specific development briefs set out in the Area Plans. This approach is being monitored but is one likely to be adopted across the Isle of Man for the remaining Area Plans to ensure that sufficient opportunities are available for housing. The use of such 'reserve' allocations demonstrates the 'Plan, Monitor and Manage' approach advocated by this Plan.

8.2 Existing and Past Development

8.2.1 The Island's population has, for many years, remained rooted in its various parishes and settlements and still today many people would wish to have the opportunity to remain living in the area in which they and their families were brought up. Similarly, people moving to the Island from other parts of the world take particular likings to different parts of the Island, either due to its individual characteristics or to their particular needs or the nature or location of their employment.

8.2.2 Traditionally, housing on the Island was developed where it was needed - principally on farms and in order to manage the countryside and in more concentrated forms alongside ports and sources of industry such as the various mines throughout the Island, resulting in towns and villages such as Douglas, Foxdale, Laxey and Port St. Mary. Of course, the earliest recognisable towns on the Island grew up near the defensive structures of Peel Castle and Castle Rushen whose origins may still be seen today in the form and nature of their streets in relation to their castles. The Island's towns and villages are all based on these earlier settlements, and, despite the variety in the size and character, generally have a nucleus of older, predominantly eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings surrounded by more modern development, much of which has been constructed since 1970.

8.2.3 The construction boom of the 1970s prompted the preparation of the Island's first all-Island planning scheme, largely to control the spread of housing over the countryside. Some regard was had to the Draft plan during the period leading up to its adoption in 1982, but it took until 1988 and the introduction of the current Appeal system before a plan-led development control system became firmly established.

8.3 Future Housing Strategy

8.3.1 It is now generally accepted that, whilst there should be available a wide range of housing throughout the Island, new housing should be located only where it can be properly and economically serviced, where it does not involve excessive travelling to and from work and amenities, and where it does not damage the character, appearance, and ecology of the Island.

8.3.2 Acc