5.13 For good reasons, Bath is a constrained city. Its ability to expand outwards into the setting of the World Heritage Site is limited and building heights of new development in the city need to ensure that its character and important views are maintained and enhanced. A consequence of this is that the Council need to carefully manage the land that is available and needs to prioritise those land uses that will deliver a city that better addresses the climate and ecological emergencies, is more sustainable in how people travel, more economically prosperous and meets our need for more housing that is affordable.
5.14 One of the key roles of the Local Plan is to seek to meet objectively assessed needs for housing (particularly affordable housing), economic space and other uses.
5.15 Given that Bath’s lack of land was previously recognised in the formulation of the Core Strategy and the Placemaking Plan, a decision was taken then to prioritise housing and employment over other needs. The evidence available at the time informed the policy approach and sufficient land was safeguarded to demonstrably meet these priority needs. That meant that a more flexible approach could be taken for other land, notably in the Twerton Riverside area, to accommodate some of the other land use needs such as for Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).
5.16 Most of the PBSA that has been built since the adoption of the Core Strategy and Placemaking Plan has generally not been on land protected for the priority land uses, but on land where there was a more flexible policy approach to land uses i.e. Twerton Riverside, as well as on ‘windfall’ (or non- designated) sites such as the Cricket Club.
5.17 Given the scale of development that has been delivered over the past ten years or so, the amount of land left in the city is even more limited than previously. The Council has made it very clear that our key priorities are to optimise the delivery of housing that is affordable, and to safeguard existing and provide new employment space, These uses will therefore be the key priorities for the Local Plan.
5.18 Key pieces of evidence that support the Council’s position are the Local Housing Needs Assessment (LHNA) which identifies what our specific housing needs are for the duration of the plan period, (and the Economic Needs Assessment, which has assessed the performance of different economic sectors and projected areas of growth. This report is very clear that the city needs to protect existing space and deliver a total of 68,000 sqm new office and research and development space (including existing commitments). It also needs to protect existing and enable the development of between 5,000- 15,000 sqm of new industrial (including replacement) floorspace, including for advanced engineering purposes, clean tech, health and life sciences and transport and storage. Some of the requirement for additional space will be met on sites that are already committed for employment development (sites with planning permission or allocated in the adopted Local Plan). These existing commitments will need to be reviewed in preparing the Draft Local Plan. Visit our library of Local Plan Evidence Base documents to learn more.
5.19 Given these land use priorities and their spatial needs, we then need to understand what capacity the city has to adsorb these needs: How much land do we have and how do we optimise its use, whilst also ensuring that we enable the delivery of exemplary developments that reinforce the city’s important character and identity of the city? This spatial analysis is ongoing and will inform the Draft Local Plan.
5.20 A consequence of this approach is that there is highly likely to be less land available for other uses for which evidence might suggest that there is a need. A clear example of this is Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA). As outlined above, a key role of the Local Plan is to mediate between different land uses and in doing so, particular land uses will not be permitted in specific locations (see also PBSA policy options in chapter 9: Development Management policies).