The introduction of Parish Profiles was the subject of an article in our July Newsletter in which we quoted the words of Council Leader Cllr Brazil, speaking to his fellow members of the Council’s executive:

I would challenge anyone who lives in the South Hams to find anywhere in the South Hams where there’s not a housing need. And so why are we spending a lot of time and money doing these housing needs surveys when all they do is confirm what we know already?

Instead, he argued, a Parish Profile was all that was required to demonstrate a housing need, offering Devon Home Choice data from the Parish Profile for Salcombe in support:

Average bids for a two-bedroom house in Salcombe, average bids 45, I think that shows a housing need in that area. I don’t think you need to go out and ask people if there’s a housing need, that says it.

He also confirmed that, when determining planning applications, Parish Profiles are to be considered a material consideration.

Consequently we were concerned developers were being invited to use Parish Profiles to support their applications. Even within the protected landscape, where development might not otherwise be possible, proposals could now be brought forward in which as few as 30% of the properties to be built need be classified as ‘affordable’, while the remainder could be overlarge and overpriced ‘executive homes’ and, when backed by Parish Profiles, such applications could be hard to refuse.

There is no doubt that in many parts of the South Hams there is a very real need for genuinely affordable housing. But before allowing Parish Profiles to become a trojan horse facilitating yet more inappropriate and unnecessary development, the Joint Local Plan should first be amended.

And finally we suggested, Devon Home Choice data alone would fail to provide an adequate alternative to many housing needs surveys. Nor, we added, could we claim with any confidence that much of the other information published in Parish Profiles was necessarily to be relied upon. Yet despite our submitting a request to discover the various data sources used to compile the Profiles, the promised response was not received by the time we went to press.

Were that information to eventually arrive, we promised, an update would be published on our website. The answers are as follows.

The average property purchase price is taken from Land Registry data, while the rental prices quoted are sourced from Rightmove. However in neither instance do the Profiles quote the number of transactions involved. In Staverton, for example, it transpired that the average house price was based on a single transaction and, where rental properties are concerned, the Council themselves accept:

This can be tricky in some areas as there are so few properties to rent and this is just a snapshot in time.

Nor, the Council acknowledge, have they any way of telling whether the private rental sector has been able to meet demand.

Similarly the number of second homes, holiday lets and AirBnBs has been taken from Council Tax records, with the Council admitting:

We are unable to provide definite numbers of second homes in each Parish. Council Tax is based on a persons sole or main residence and if the property is no ones sole or main residence, it is charged as an unoccupied property (with different rules and amounts based on furnished or unfurnished). Reason for it being unoccupied and furnished is irrelevant to Council Tax, but it should be Business Rated if a Holiday Let (or AirB&B) that is both available for short term let for at least 140 days in the previous year and actually commercially let for 70 of those days. A property being Business Rated is based on that factual information and not the choice of the Council or the Taxpayer.

In other words, the number of second homes is again not necessarily to be relied upon, and the accuracy of the number of holiday lets and AirBnBs is dependent on their owners ensuring their properties are Business Rated.

As for the number of bedrooms per property and the occupancy ratings for bedrooms, both are derived from the most recent Census undertaken in 2021. This means that information, along with all the other information taken from the Census, is already three years out of date and will not now be updated until 2031.

Separately, although in Salcombe the number of pupils attending the primary school are said to be ‘around the level of the school’s capacity’, the Council are unable to say whether the school would be physically capable of expansion were it necessary to accommodate more.

Insufficient information is also provided by the Parish Profile as to the sustainability of further development in the area. For example no attempt has been made to establish whether the sewage treatment works still has capacity, whether there are any employment opportunities in the immediate locality, whether there is an NHS dentist accepting new patients, how long it can take on average to get to see a GP, the availability of public transport, or local levels of air pollution and traffic congestion.

Without addressing such issues the value of Parish Profiles remains far from certain. Fortunately the Council’s Executive Lead for Housing has agreed to come and discuss both Parish Profiles and the South Hams Housing Offer on 26 September at the first of this autumn’s Crabshell Conversations.

We have every confidence she will be able to put our concerns to rest.