1. Planning and Building Control
  2. Planning Policy
  3. Engagement and Monitoring
  4. Monitoring

Monitoring

The Council is responsible for planning for sustainable housing and employment growth across Rother District. The overall scale and distribution of growth is set by its Local Plan Core Strategy. To ensure its policies are up-to-date and effective, the Council undertakes ongoing assessments and monitoring of them, with particular focus on housing supply.

Authority Monitoring Report

The Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) fulfils a requirement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended by the Localism Act 2011) and associated Regulations to produce a monitoring report, at least annually, to monitor and review planning policies within the District.

The AMR is crucial to the successful delivery of the Council’s Local Plan (2011-2028) and a systematic and dynamic monitoring system helps understand the wider social, environmental and economic issues affecting their areas and the key drivers of spatial change. The findings should feed directly into any review of policy that may be required.

It brings together monitoring information and detailed commentary on housing, employment development, transport and the environment. It also includes analysis of the production of the Local Plan against the Council’s published timetable.

Housing Land Supply Monitoring

The Housing Land Supply position statement identifies the supply of dwellings at sites with planning permission and allocations and shows the extent to which existing plans fulfil the requirement to maintain a rolling five year supply of deliverable land in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Employment Land Supply Monitoring

The Employment Land Supply provides information on recent completions and commitments of employment related developments. It also considers the contribution that business commitments are expected to make towards the supply of business floorspace, relative to the targets in the submitted Core Strategy.

Housing Delivery Test Action Plan

The Housing Delivery Test (HDT) has been introduced by the Government as a monitoring tool to demonstrate whether LPAs are building enough homes to meet their housing need. The HDT compares the number of new homes delivered over the previous three years with the authority’s housing requirement. The result of the HDT will be used to determine the buffer to apply in housing land supply position statements and whether the presumption in favour of sustainable development should apply.

In January 2022 the Government published the HDT results for the 2021 Measurement. Against a requirement of 1,189 dwellings over the last three years, Rother delivered 677 net dwellings with a result of 57%. Consequently the Council is required to produce an Action Plan in response to the latest HDT result, as well as including a 20% buffer in its housing land supply position statement and applying the NPPFs presumption in favour of sustainable development. The Action Plan responding to the 2021 measurement set out below.

Biodiversity Monitoring

The Biodiversity Annual Monitoring Report provides a retrospective look at the potential impacts on biodiversity of approved planning applications for the financial year.

  • The Biodiversity Annual Monitoring Report 2023 is available on request to the council.

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Monitoring

The Infrastructure Funding Statement

Where the District Council receives a contribution from development through CIL or Section 106 planning obligations must prepare an Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS). An IFS must cover the previous financial year from 1 April to 31 March.

The IFS must set out:

  • Part A: A report regarding CIL relating to the previous financial year.
  • Part B: A report regarding Section 106 obligations relating to the previous financial year; and
  • Part C: A report on the infrastructure projects or types of infrastructure that the authority intends to fund, or may fund, wholly or partly by the levy (excluding the Local CIL which is passed to local parishes, i.e. the neighbourhood portion). For this IFS, reference is made to the Council’s adopted Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP) regarding infrastructure outputs that could be funded by the CIL.

The IFS sets out future spending priorities on infrastructure and affordable housing in line with up-to-date or emerging plan policies and the needs of major infrastructure providers.  This should provide clarity and transparency for communities and developers on the infrastructure and affordable housing that is expected to be delivered.  The Infrastructure Delivery Plan sets out the framework for infrastructure needed to support the development targets set out in the adopted Local Plan and is the most up to date position of infrastructure needs in the District.

The IFS should set out the infrastructure projects or types of infrastructure that the authority intends to fund, or may fund, either wholly or partly, by the levy or planning obligations.  Inclusion of any type of infrastructure in the IFS does not signify a commitment from the Council to deliver or fund, either in whole or in part, the infrastructure set out within it through CIL.  Nor does the order set out within the Statement imply any order of preference or weighting of one particular type of infrastructure.  It sets out the view regarding the funding of infrastructure at that point in time. 

Where Rother District Council passes funds to other bodies, that body must provide information back to the District Council on if and/how contributions have been spent in that reporting year, and how they intend to spend future contributions, to inform the IFS. Where monies are passed directly to other bodies – in some instances, as per the terms of some Section 106s, monies are paid directly to East Sussex County Council, rather than coming to the District Council first –it is the responsibility of that body to report how the monies have been spent through their own IFS. Where parish councils are passed monies (Section 106 or CIL) from the District Council, it is the Parish Council’s responsibility to notify the District Council of any such spend.

Parish and Town Council CIL Reporting

Parish and Town Councils must also provide an annual report of their neighbourhood CIL money received from the District Council and spent each financial year, by 31 December each year. These should be published on the parish or town council websites and also sent to the District Council. Copies of these reports will be published below, for the latest year, as they are made available.

Parish and Town Council CIL Reports for previous years can be found on the Previous Parish and Town Council CIL Reports page.

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