THE number of new homes built in Craven could dramatically increase after attempts by North Yorkshire Council to get its proposed annual housebuilding target reduced appeared to have 'fallen on stony ground'.

The council and individual councillors, including mid-Craven member Simon Myers had raised concerns over Government proposals that 4,323 new houses be built across the county per year, almost twice the current target of 2,289.

But, at last week's quarterly meeting of North Yorkshire Council in Northallerton, Cllr Mark Crane, said he had met with Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, under secretary of state for housing and local government, to raise the council's concerns, but it had not been a positive meeting.

A suggestion that the council could 'ramp-up' the number of new-builds every year to the required target got the response that if that happened, the short-fall would simply be added on to the following year, said Cllr Crane.

Cllr Crane, the council's  executive member for open for business, which includes planning, told the meeting: "I believe my missive fell on stony ground, and I don't anticipate the government changing the figures. I made several points to her (Baroness Taylor) which she took on board and promised to write back to me on a couple of them, but I think that when we go ahead with the Local Plan, unless something dramatic happens, we are going to be looking at building 4,300 homes.

"I did suggest that we could perhaps ramp up to that sort of number, although I did suggest up to 3,000 or perhaps 3, 500 at the most, and was told if we did not build 4,300 in year one, it would be added onto year two."

Cllr Crane, who told the meeting he had known the baroness for some time, added: "It wasn't a positive meeting and I am afraid to say, it will probably impact on everybody's ward in this council."

After the meeting, Councillor Andy Solloway, (NY Ind, Skipton West and West Craven) said: " My own view on this is that it is unsustainable to have this target because of the lack of infrastructure and services.

"This government has continued the stance of not seeing the difference between rural and urban areas. With these numbers we are going to see the real prospect of having villages joined up to towns by housing developments as is happening elsewhere, but with no real infrastructure or services improvements or increase."

Cllr Myers said it was his view that the proposed figure was unsustainable and that the county did not have the resources to build so many new houses.

Cllr Crane added: “The Government has carried out consultation on proposed changes to the national planning policy framework, which includes the introduction of mandatory housing targets. If the proposed changes are introduced, the target for North Yorkshire will be 4,323 dwellings per year.

“The proposed target is for the authority and the associated plan area, there will not be a housing target specific to the former Craven area.

“The outcome of the consultation on the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework are expected to be published towards the end of this year.”

The annual housebuilding target as determined in the Craven Local Plan, adopted in November, 2019, is for 230 additional dwellings per year.

The plan makes provision for 4,600 net additional dwellings from April 1 2012 March 31, 2032. A total 2,484 dwellings were completed in the Craven Plan area from the adoption of the local plan in 2012 to the end of March this year.

As of the start of April this year, there were a total of 928 dwellings available with planning permission.