The government has today revealed its planning overhaul, setting out how it intends to work towards its 1.5m homes target
Today marks the unveiling of the long-awaited planning reforms, which are promised to get approval for a huge number of projects.
The reforms have been spoken about with housebuilding at the forefront as part of the government’s 1.5m homes target.
Planning reforms and mandatory targets for councils
Councils are now awaiting their targets, having been told that they have a crucial role to play in meeting the combined housing targets of 370,000 homes per year.
Targets for councils will be mandatory and based on the available space and already available housing.
The new planning rules in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) also include:
- Areas with the highest housing unaffordability and the greatest growth potential will see increased housing targets, along with more action to ensure councils create or update and maintain local plans that are best suited for their community
- A “common-sense” approach will be taken for greenbelt developments. While brownfield developments will keep priority, greenbelt boundaries will be reviewed, and greybelt land will also be prioritised
- Greenbelt land will also have strict requirements through new “golden rules,” requiring developers to be able to demonstrate the necessary infrastructure for local communities, i.e. GP surgeries, local transport, nurseries, as well as social and affordable housing
- Councils and developers will also need to give more consideration to social rent when housebuilding, and local leaders will have more power in building affordable homes for the people that need them.
The overhaul promises that change is coming
In the current framework, under a third of councils have adopted a local plan in the last five years, and the number of homes granted planning permission has hit its lowest in a decade.
The planning reforms will set timetables for new plans within 12 weeks of the update to the NPPF, on penalty of ministerial intervention.
Local authorities will also have three months to progress their local plans that are already in development, as well as introducing a new requirement for existing plans that are based on old targets, in which councils will need to provide for six years of homes in the pipeline instead of five.
Last weekend, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said that councils would need to be prepared to work on their local plans. Speaking on the new update, she said: “From day one I have been open and honest about the scale of the housing crisis we have inherited. This mission-led government will not shy away from taking the bold and decisive action needed to fix it for good.
“We cannot shirk responsibility and leave over a million families on housing waiting lists and a generation locked out of home ownership. Our Plan for Change means overhauling planning to make the dream of a secure home a reality for working people.
“Today’s landmark overhaul will sweep away last year’s damaging changes and shake-up a broken planning system which caves into the blockers and obstructs the builders.
“I will not hesitate to do what it takes to build 1.5m new homes over five years and deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
”We must all do our bit and we must all do more. We expect every local area to adopt a plan to meet their housing need. The question is where the homes and local services people expect are built, not whether they are built at all.”
Prime minister Keir Starmer said: “For far too long, working people graft hard but are denied the security of owning their own home. I know how important it is – our pebble dash semi meant everything to our family growing up. But with a generation of young people whose dream of homeownership feels like a distant reality, and record levels of homelessness, there’s no shying away from the housing crisis we have inherited.
“We owe it to those working families to take urgent action, and that is what this government is doing. Our Plan for Change will put builders, not blockers, first, overhaul the broken planning system and put roofs over the heads of working families and drive the growth that will put more money in people’s pockets.
“We’re taking immediate action to make the dream of homeownership a reality through delivering 1.5m homes by the next parliament and rebuilding Britain to deliver for working people.”
An overhaul to planning committees
On Monday, the government launched the second working paper on reforming planning committees.
The paper discusses how planning committees can be re-purposed to support the planning-first approach that the updated NPPF will take, through three options:
- Delegation where an application complies with development plan
- Delegation as default with exceptions for departures from the development plan
- Delegation as default with a prescriptive list of exceptions
Nick Diment, director at Boyer (part of Leaders Romans Group), said: “Currently a disproportionately large number of planning applications are required to go before a planning committee. This introduces considerable additional uncertainty as to whether proposed development schemes will materialise – despite the fact that the principle of development going ahead is technically secured through the Local Plan process.
“Delays, resubmission of planning applications and, potentially, appeals can introduce significant costs and delays. Greater certainty is required to encourage developers to bring forward proposals (especially when viability might be impacted by affordable housing and other requirements) and to speed up the process of development.”
“The complexity of Option 1, which is common across all alternatives, is that it requires judgement on what complies, or does not comply, with the development plan. Applying this judgement isn’t new for officers but now, more than ever, consensus needs to be reached between LPA and applicant. Careful consideration of whether policy is outdated and whether the local plan is up to date will be critical. Failure to do so correctly could lead to delays and challenges.
“Option 2 could mean that high numbers of planning applications are determined by officers, rather than planning committees.
“My concern is that this approach would be impacted by the fact that only about 35-40% of LPAs have up-to-date local plans. For those LPAs without a current local plan (the majority), 100% planning applications would be determined by committee – adding a considerable additional burden to those LPAs which are already considerably stretched.
“Additionally, in circumstances where the majority of planning applications are determined by officers, members will not have a role in determining applications for locally sensitive or controversial small-scale development. In these cases, planning merits are finely balanced in terms of the development plan, and historically officers have looked to the committee to make the final decision. An easy win would be to ensure all reserved matters application are delegated following granting of the Outline planning consent.”
“Instead of focussing on whether a specific planning application complies or generally departs from the development plan, Option 3 links to key common tests in national policy and development plans, with the intention of providing greater clarity and consistency to applicants. However, these common tests have yet to be agreed – who will set them, will they be consulted upon, and can this be achieved without loopholes emerging in the system? Can such a radical departure really introduce clarity, and quickly?”
“Consultation on these very significant changes should be welcomed. The proposals are far reaching, and the industry has a chance to influence real change. However, with so many variations on the theme of additional delegation, we are potentially spoilt for choice and may fail to unite behind the best option.
“Whichever route is chosen, it needs to be transparent and ensure that there is no room for ambiguity or local interpretation.
“Furthermore, a clear set of definitions will be critical. Careful consideration needs to be given to defining what is an up-to-date development plan, what is compliant with a development plan, what is a departure, what is a strategic development area and when it comes to strategic issues, what is the scope. Unless the emerging legislation is finely drafted by accomplished lawyers, I foresee considerable scope for appeal.
“That said, there is a clear need for change and these proposals are a step in the right direction.”
Industry reaction to the planning reforms
RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki, said: “Today’s revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework offer a promising path forward.
“Enhanced emphasis on design quality and sustainability reflects a clear understanding of what constitutes good design, paving the way to create places where people truly want to live.
“Significant moves to review the use of the greenbelt and define the meaning of grey belt land, while prioritising brownfield development, also signal a willingness to tackle some of the most pressing barriers to large-scale development.
“To ensure success, two critical interventions are needed: greater involvement of architects and greater resource for local planning authorities.
“Most importantly, this cannot become a solely numbers-driven exercise. In our cities, towns and countryside people deserve high-quality, well-designed homes that meet their needs and stand the test of time.”
Tony Mulhall, Senior Specialist of RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors), said: “RICS welcomes the launch of the revised National Planning Policy Framework. The changes demonstrate that policymakers are willing to take a forward-thinking approach to overhauling planning policy in a bid to speed up the delivery of housing and infrastructure.
“To meet the 1.5 million-home target, Labour has rightly identified that the private sector will have a leading role to play in increasing output, which currently sits at just 221,070 net new homes a year, and have therefore introduced policies that de-risk development and provide certainty. This is of vital importance to investors and funders, who deem residential development as high-risk.
“The reintroduction of mandatory housing targets is also encouraging, as is the support for the review of greenbelt boundaries. The fifty percent affordable housing target on green belt land is a laudable target, but viability testing at plan making stage will remain necessary and should apply as currently conducted. Many low sales value areas will not support this target, so the need for flexibility remains essential to deliver more housing including more affordable.
“Ambitions for a Local Plan-led system, announced earlier this week, will be dependent on councils’ ability to update existing development plans. We estimate that up to three-quarters of plans are currently out-of-date. Plans take time to consult on and update, and also require significant resource, which we know planning departments are lacking in.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “It’s very positive that the Government has quickly recognised and responded to the fact that to drive economic growth and deliver a step change in housing delivery we need a planning system which is agile, fit for purpose, adequately resourced and, crucially, retains a plan-led approach at its core.
“The revised NPPF and other recent and mooted reforms go some way to addressing this, but more remains to be done. While this new framework will help industry’s confidence to build more homes of all tenures, including Build-to-Rent and affordable homes, it must integrate with other emerging frameworks such as the industrial strategy and the national infrastructure plan to enhance economic growth.
“That we need to deliver housing is beyond doubt, but those homes and the communities require critical infrastructure, including logistics, and jobs to be economically sustainable.
“We urge that these revised housing targets align with employment space targets to create places where people can live and work. Going forward, Government should build on this positive start by addressing other causes of subdued delivery rates, such as viability challenges, weaker than expected economic sentiment and market demand, and construction sector capacity.”
CPRE chief executive, Roger Mortlock, said: “The broken housebuilding market is to blame for the painfully slow delivery of much-needed new homes. When big housebuilders deliberately limit the supply of new homes to maximise their profits, supercharging the current system will not lead to the change the government is looking for.
‘The government’s plans risk a huge hike in the number of unaffordable, car-dependent homes. Building on England’s 1.2 million shovel-ready brownfield sites would do far more to unlock growth, regenerate communities and provide sustainable, genuinely affordable new homes.
“We welcome the commitment to local plans and affordable homes. However, local authorities responsible for delivering new homes will be swamped with speculative applications on high-quality Green Belt and farmland. Inevitably, many of these will be approved to meet nationally imposed targets.
“The ‘grey belt’ policy needs to be much more clearly defined and exclude working farms. It will undermine the Green Belt, one of this country’s most successful spatial protections with huge potential to help address the climate and nature emergencies.
“There’s some hope ahead with plans for a strategy that covers all our use of land. Longer-term commitments to build genuinely affordable and better designed homes are welcome too. Until then,, our countryside will remain needlessly under threat.”
Stephen Teagle, chair of the board of The Housing Forum said: “As the cross-sector body for the housing sector, we are aware of the multitude of challenges involved in scaling up housebuilding. However, the need for new housing has never been higher, and we welcome the Government’s ambitious approach and clear rhetoric that there can be no excuse for failing to deliver much-needed new homes.
“We are particularly pleased to see the new higher housing targets and the measures announced today to focus these strongly where housing is least affordable. Together with a less rigid approach to greenbelt the new approach should help to ensure there is sufficient land allocated for housing. These new supply side measures are welcome.
“There is also an urgent need for investment in skills and training for the workforce required. And to bring forward the social housing that’s needed most urgently by people facing homelessness, the government also needs to increase grant funding for the Affordable Homes Programme, and help social landlords to invest their own resources via certainty of future rental income and access to the Building Safety Fund.”
Jonathan Parker, development director at Pagabo, said: “There’s clear ambition with the new NPPF with increased housing targets and supercharging the planning system to promote growth. A key thing is that planning is about placemaking. Homes are part of a bigger equation, and so viability of any site – brownfield, greybelt or otherwise – remains a central pillar to getting this placemaking piece right on all sides. Partnership approaches between developers and local authorities has always been the recommended solution to really empower transformational development that is viable and works for everyone – a point echoed again and again at a recent investment event hosted by our team in Birmingham.
“However, if the viability guidance on this isn’t expected until the Spring, there’s a clear risk of progress being stunted in the short-term. Especially with the viability gap tending to be bigger around affordable housing, and new approaches to how its provision will come forward based on more localised needs under the new NPPF, it’s hard to see how effective appraisals can be run until that guidance is in place, which will likely cause delays in bringing sites forward.
“£100m has been earmarked to go into supporting and increasing the capacity of the planning system, and we already knew that more planning officers will form part of that. They may make small gains here and there, but we’ll be watching with interest on how the investment improves processes and behaviours that will make real progress. After all, if it’s not done in a strategic way – such as more junior planners looking at private home extensions, and more senior and experience planners taking on the big placemaking tasks – then it’s just a very large pack of sticking plasters.
“Adding in another layer for many to navigate with incoming procurement reform, it’s set to be a really busy and potentially confusing start to the year, so it’s absolutely vital we make sure the first steps do go down the road that leads to successfully delivering on the government’s targets.
