MALDON District Council says it has identified enough land for housing across the district for the next six years

It means they are exceeding the national five-year measure for councils to meet so they can keep up with housing demand.  

Maldon Council’s Five-Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS)’s latest report has shown that the council has “6.3 years’ worth of housing” in “specific, deliverable, and sufficient, sites”.

Maldon also does not need to add a 20 per cent buffer per National Planning Policy Framework guidance because housing delivery has not fallen below 85 per cent over the last three years.

While the council’s slippage rate – the difference between the council’s predicted figure and the actual figure - remains “very low” at 2.83 per cent overall and 2.77 per cent in 2023.

If this slippage rate rises above 5 per cent – becoming statistically relevant - it will be added back into the 5YHLS plan as this figure is reviewed annually.

Maldon District Council said the reason why the amount has risen to 6.3 years is firstly due to the ‘five-year need figure’ for housing falling from 1,550 to 1,380.

Another reason was that “several major housing sites” have moved rapidly into their delivery stage including Burnham Waters Retirement site in Burnham, Bridgemans Green in Latchingdon, and the Site 2d North Heybridge Garden Suburb.