Comment

Representation ID: 22234

Received: 16/03/2020

Respondent: Phoebe Juggins

The ‘Sites’ section of the GNLP identifies site allocations, and addresses the provision of schools where required. The site allocations and associated safeguarding policies should seek to clarify requirements for the delivery of new schools, including when they should be delivered to support housing growth, the minimum site area required, any preferred site characteristics, and any requirements for safeguarding additional land for future expansion of schools where need and demand indicates this might be necessary.
Viability assessment should inform options analysis and site selection, with site typologies reflecting the type and size of developments that are envisaged in the borough/district. This enables an informed judgement about which developments would be able to deliver the range of infrastructure required, including schools, leading to policy requirements that are fair, realistic and evidence-based. In accordance with Planning Practice Guidance, there should be an initial assumption that applicable developments will provide both land and funding for the construction of new schools. The total cumulative cost of complying with all relevant policies should not undermine deliverability of the plan, so it is important that anticipated education needs and costs of provision are incorporated at the outset, to inform local decisions about site selection and infrastructure priorities.
While it is important to provide this clarity and certainty to developers and the communities affected by development, retaining a degree of flexibility about site specific requirements for schools is also necessary given that the need for school places can vary over time due to the many variables affecting it. DfE therefore recommends the next version of the Local Plan Sites document highlights that:

-specific requirements for developer contributions to increasing capacity of existing schools and the provision of new schools for any particular site will be confirmed at application stage to ensure the latest data on identified need informs delivery; and that

-requirements to deliver schools on some sites could change in future if it were demonstrated and agreed that the site had become surplus to requirements, and is therefore no longer required for school use.

DfE would like to be included as early as possible in further discussions on potential site allocations, as there are central wave pipeline free school projects in South Norfolk District which may be appropriate for specific designation. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Council in the near future to discuss these projects.
Notably, we are about to start pre-application discussions with the Authority regarding a new SEND school to the south of the village of Easton, to the west of Norwich. As part of those discussions, we would also seek to discuss potential allocation of the site.
The proposed SEND school will be an ‘all through’ school which will house 170 pupils at full capacity, including a nursery and a special autism unit.

Forward Funding
25.DfE loans to forward fund schools as part of large residential developments maybe of interest, for example if viability becomes an issue. Please see the Developer Loans for Schools prospectus for more information. Any offer of forward funding would seek to maximise developer contributions to education infrastructure provision while supporting delivery of schools where and when they are needed.