4 Key Findings
4.1 This is the third annual monitoring report for Wigan Borough produced under the requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. In general, it leads to the conclusion that good progress is being made both in putting in place the various components of the Local Development Framework whilst implementing the 'saved policies' of the Unitary Development Plan (UDP) which remain part of the statutory development plan for the borough.
4.2 Over the three years since the first monitoring report was required we have made good progress also in establishing the data collection and monitoring systems required to meet the needs of routine monitoring. This process has gone hand in hand with the development and compilation of the extensive and robust evidence base which informs the LDF preparation process. The improvement of the monitoring system is, of course, an ongoing task which will proceed alongside LDF preparation but it is now in much better shape to give us the information to determine the impact of our policies than was the case three years ago.
4.3 The Core Indicators and Local Indicators reported on in this document show general progress in the implementation of UDP policies, as would be expected with the relatively recent adoption (2006) of the UDP, giving the council a robust and up-to-date statutory development plan which, along with the Regional Spatial Strategy, serves to guide development and conservation in the borough.
4.4 Where there are specific issues arising from performance against the indicators, this is referred to in the individual topic commentaries given in the body of the report. As with last years report, the two key issues which merit comment in this section relate to the rate of development for both employment and housing uses.
4.5 The rate of development of employment land is high and increasing, compared to last year and the previous year. Whilst this is to be welcomed as an indication of the health of the local economy and the council's success in providing local jobs, it gives emphasis to the outstanding requirement from the UDP Inspector's Report to identify further land for employment use. Section 2 of this report includes our response to this outstanding requirement in the LDF through the programmed Allocations and Infrastructure Development Plan Document (DPD) on which work is well under way.
4.6 Also notable is the high rate of housing development and it is particularly pleasing that 96% of these new dwellings were built on brownfield land. Although this rate of development exceeds that given in the UDP, based on that laid down for the borough in the Regional Spatial Strategy, this is not a cause for concern due to the imminent replacement of RSS with a new version which will include significantly higher housebuilding rates. In fact wider government moves can be discerned in the recent Housing Green Paper to move towards even higher rates of housebuilding to meet the latest population and housing forecasts, a move which this borough is well placed to respond to.
4.7 Although there are no affordable housing completions to report for the time period covered by this AMR, next years report will contain returns for affordable housing projected and currently under construction in line with the council's affordable housing policy.
4.8 The Local Development Scheme lays out the council's programme for bringing forward the plans and other documents that make up the Local Development Framework and Section 2 of this report details the implementation of the scheme. As well as the Supplementary Planning Documents that have been and are in process of being produced, it is noted that work has now commenced on the Core Strategy and the Allocations and Infrastructure documents, both key components of the LDF.