Read this chapter of the Housing and Economic Needs Assessment May 2022.
A HENA is required as part of the local evidence base supporting the Local Plan Update. The Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) on HENAs sets out the calculation that local planning authorities should follow to calculate local housing need for the purposes of the allocation through local plans that are to be submitted for Examination on or after 24 January 2019. As the Update to the Torbay Local Plan 2012 to 2030 postdates this, it is appropriate to follow HENA in respect of the calculation of the local housing need figure and the annualised affordable housing need figure.
The HENA is required to:
In respect of the current housing evidence base supporting the Local Plan, the Exeter & Torbay Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) was published in 2007 and updated for Torbay in 2011.
These assessments were produced by Opinion Research Services (ORS). The update in 2011 was prior to the release of the 2011 Census figures. There is no longer a requirement to produce a SHMA as supporting evidence for local planning; the HENA now fulfils that role. Nonetheless, parts of this assessment will reference the SHMA for purposes of consistency.
The majority of the data used for this assessment is available by way of open data provided by public sector agencies. The base data used for all housing market assessment is Census based which for the purposes of this assessment is the Census 2011. The Census data is accessible via the Nomisweb website. Most population and household estimates and projections are mainly derived from original Census data.
The main repository of open source data is the Office for National Statistics (ONS), most of which can be accessed via the Nomisweb site. Increasingly the ONS is publishing data that previously was the responsibility of separate agencies or Government departments. The ONS publishes the Annual Population Survey (APS), Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and population and household estimates and projections.
Other data sources include the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities or DLUHC (formerly the Ministry of Housing and Local Government or MHCLG) which provides Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS). The Valuation Office Agency provides housing stock information comparable to Census stock and private rental data at the local authority level. The Land Registry provides house price indices and price paid data. The assessment also refers to Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) data in respect of welfare payments and Energy Saving Trust data on energy ratings of the housing stock. The Council has acquired household income data from CACI Ltd. This has been provided at postcode level and is used to underpin the affordability analysis.