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INSIDE THIS WEEK: Council ordered to put together ‘action plan’ for failing to build enough houses SEFTON Council is failing to meet strict housing targets set by the government and must now put together an ‘action plan’ to address the deficit. The local authority was subjected to a recent Housing Delivery Test to see if they were able to hit a target of overseeing the construction of 1,564 houses between April 2015 to March 2018. The government sets each council a 95% ‘pass’ target but as Sefton only delivered 995 houses over the three year period, it fell well short with only 64%. ‘Opportunity’ It means that the council must now produce a Housing Delivery Action Plan to avoid this happening in the coming years. Despite the outcome, Sefton Council believes its Local Plan, which identifies how land is used and what could be built in certain locations, should be “given an opportunity to work.”
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Vol 26 l Issue 32
7 August 2019
25 YEARS
Report by Tom Martin A report published by the council states: “It is not considered that there is a particular issue for the council in housing delivery and the main message is that the Local Plan needs to have the opportunity to work and deliver the housing that Sefton needs. “However, regardless of whether the council exceed the 95% threshold of delivery in 2019, it is recommended that a Housing Delivery Action Plan is carried out annually to monitor the effectiveness of the Local Plan and the actions within this housing delivery test. “If future issues are identified then the council can, working with other stakeholders, produce more targeted actions.” The government’s yearly target was 501 houses for 2015/16, 501 houses for 2016/17 and 563 houses for 2017/18.
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£16M CARE HOME PROJECT HALTED AFTER COLLAPSE OF CONTRACTOR Workforce turned away from ‘Belong Birkdale’ site after developer, Pochin, goes bust Report by Danielle Thompson
Workers have been turned away from the £16m Belong Birkdale site
WORK on a £16m state-of-the-art care village scheme in Birkdale has stopped after its main contractor and developer collapsed into administration on Monday. Belong Birkdale, is currently under construction on Oxford Road and is due to open in just six months time. But the project came to a sudden halt on Monday when North West construction company, Pochin, went bust throwing the development into turmoil. The site is planned to provide high-specification accommodation for over 100 people and will feature a 74-bed village, divided into six households, providing 24-hour care and nursing support.
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