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Employment Land Audit
The Employment Land Audit was commissioned in December 2004 by Wokingham District Council, to
inform the employment land policies in their forthcoming Local Development Frameworks.
The broad objectives of the study, as set out in the brief, are to:
- Forecast the requirement for employment land both for the next 5 years and for the next 10 years;
- Audit the currently identified supply against this requirement, both in terms of quantity and quality;
- Draw the policy implications, showing where more or different employment land is needed, and alternatively where there is scope for transferring existing and proposed employment sites to other uses.
The potential release of employment land for housing is a key issue for the study, due to both central government priorities and to local circumstances. The recent update to Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 indicates that employment land should be considered for re-allocation to housing, except for sites that are shown by an up-to-date review to be still suitable and needed for employment. Wokingham District has pressures for such re-allocation because the Green Belt and other designations restrict development capacity. There is also a notion that the lack of housing, particularly affordable housing. is resulting in difficulties for accommodating workers in the district, particularly in lower value occupation and employment sectors.
The brief, and subsequent discussions, set out a number of area-specific and thematic questions, including the:
- Use of space within business parks, industrial estates and town centre offices;
- Use of farm buildings for employment (ie, Use Class B-space) provision;
- Required mix of space, particularly space for start-up business units; and
- Potential for locating a science park in Wokingham district.
To read the attached pdf files, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. This software is available free from www.adobe.com
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