I am in general agreement with the review proposals but wish to make the following comments:
* Birmingham's Housing Need. There are considerable areas of derelict former industrial land, both within the city council area and adjacent local authority areas. Whilst some of these sites are contaminated and developers would prefer prime building land, these should be restored and used to provide housing in order to maximise provision and reduce the need to build on green field sites and protect the Green Belt. This was government policy in the mid-1990s and still makes sense.
* Green Belt. The government has signalled its intention to minimise loss of Green Belt and we should only consider encroachment on Solihull's confirmed Green Belt where development enhances the quality of the environment. For example, by allowing housing on former industrial/commercial sites that may have been in existence for many years but would not today be considered appropriate development in the Green Belt or are no longer providing a community benefit.
Where it is necessary to sacrifice any areas of Green Belt there should be clear and defensible boundaries to avoid further encroachment. In particular, where it is proposed to build on land adjacent to established villages/communities, there should be an agreed new boundary to ensure they remain as clear 'insets' and do not gradually spread. Applications for 'infilling' should only be allowed where this is a genuine plot between neighbouring dwellings, as opposed to stretches of countryside that happen to lie between scattered houses.
* Transport Corridors and Parking. Adequate public transport needs to be provided for any new major housing developments but account must also be taken of the chronic parking issues around rail stations. Further development that would increase pressure on suburban rail stations (Olton, Dorridge, Marston Green, Widney, Hampton in Arden) and consideration given to creation of Park and Ride schemes to reduce the current parking pressures.
* Health Provision. Development should take account of the increased pressure on existing Doctors' Surgeries, where residents already have to wait weeks for a routine appointment and even have difficulty in getting emergency appointments. New surgeries/health centres should be a requirement of large developments unless there is clear evidence that the local surgery had capacity to register new patients.