Inspector David Vickery has added a new word to the planning lexicon to describe an issue often covered in this blog ‘recessionary underestimation’ – which covers the supression of new households in the recession because people couldn’t afford to form a new household. You might also add ‘boom overestimation’ to describe the process at the other end of the cycle. It is only recently that formal guidance, and the TCPA report, have widely recrecognized this issue.
Odd I think that Maldon responded by trying to say they were doing what Keith Holland told them to two years ago (before the most recent guidance was published), when he advised them to update their SHMA, which they did and then ignored, how odd.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 
Did we have a boom? In mortgage lending and credit perhaps, but not in housing supply. Hence the cautionary note from the RTPI and the TCPA about placing too much reliance on the 2011 Interim Household Projections for future forecasting (also echoed in the NPPG). As they say, plan-makers need to be mindful not only of the effects of the recession but also a long-term effect of a historic housing undersupply on the ability for households to form.