South Wiltshire Core Strategy - Wiltshire Council

6.37 Contingency and Flexibility
Only where compelling evidence exists of when the sites will be developed have they
been allocated in this strategy. However, the Strategy does have in-built contingency
and flexibility, should sites not come forward as projected. This is based on the
frontloading approach to the delivery of housing, as described above. If the housing
trajectory information on site deliverability and infrastructure provision indicates that
by 2026 there will be a 20% or more variation compared to the amount of housing
required, a SPD will be prepared, to consider altering the release of housing land in
the longer term. The detailed mechanism for bringing forward reserve sites into the
rolling five-year housing supply will be set out in the SPD/Site Allocations DPD. This
approach is flexible, responsive and able to adapt to changing circumstances 58 .
6.38 A deliberate strategy of frontloading the Core Strategy has been produced and all the
strategic sites have been identified as being able to deliver within the early years of
the plan.
6.39 Not enough homes have been delivered to meet local needs in the past ten years in
south Wiltshire. However, the benefits of frontloading the Core Strategy go beyond
simply fulfilling the quanta of housing required. The shortage of housing has an
impact on open market house prices in the area, this in turn impacts on economic
growth due to the lack of a local workforce living in the area.
6.40 The shortfall in housing provision contributes to the demographic of the area, and in
turn the aging population impacts on viability, making the area less economically
competitive. There is consequently a high level of out-commuting for work purposes,
which impacts on the self-containment and sustainability of south Wiltshire.
6.41 Addressing these issues requires a flexible approach and the strategy of frontloading
provides this by only identifying strategic sites where there is evidence of a
commitment to start delivery within the first five years of the plan. There is a
contingency in this approach of oversupply in that the failure to develop any one or
two of the sites would not prevent the overall aims of the Strategy being achieved
through the delivery of the other sites.
6.42 The delivery of the other strategic sites will allow the decanting of business from the
Churchfields site, which is central to the economic policies of the Strategy. Whilst it is
acknowledged that the redevelopment of Churchfields relies on other sites, it is again
the case that the failure of any one or two of those sites would not hamper the overall
strategy.
6.43 Notwithstanding this, and although every effort has been made to ensure all the
strategic sites will deliver housing within the first five years of the plan, there is a need
to provide further contingency to ensure that uncertain market conditions or
unforeseen events will not prevent the delivery of the Strategy.
6.44 This further contingency is provided in that, should any of these sites fail to come
forward, alternative sites can be identified within an SSA DPD. Areas of Search for
the alternative sites would be predominantly centred on the major settlements of
Salisbury and Amesbury, and would be identified through a number of stages:
Identification of constraints; Identification of less-constrained areas; Assessment of
less constrained areas against national and regional policy and sustainability
objectives; Identification of the most suitable sites for allocation, including a
consideration of landscape character.
6.45 Other sources of Growth
Core Policy 2 sets out the distribution of strategic growth that will be delivered
through the strategic allocations, and in order to meet overall requirements it is also
necessary to take account of other sources of supply, so that the levels of delivery
58 This approach is consistent with PPS3 para 63.
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