“I know that, like every member of the Government, you will feel not just a professional responsibility but a moral obligation to see more homes built…….it falls to you and your authorities not only to plan for the houses we need, but also to deliver the affordable and social housing that can provide working families with a route to a secure home.”
Those are the words in a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) to all local authority leaders and chief executives in England on the day of her announcement to the House of Commons about planning policy reforms.
There were also some nice things said about planning officers and planners in general. Minister of State for Housing, Matthew Pennycook MP, in a letter to Lindsey Richards FRTPI, President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said that he has enormous respect for the planning profession and repeated what the DPM said that “skilled, professional planning officers are agents of change and drivers of growth, playing a crucial role in delivering the homes and infrastructure this country needs”.
What this means in practice is the reintroduction of mandatory housing targets that local planning authorities (LPAs) must plan for and deliver through their local plans. Many local plans are significantly out of date and some LPAs consistently fall short on the delivery of sufficient land to meet their forecast housing needs. Since 2015, the approach has been that planning inspectors should operate “pragmatically” during local plan examinations to allow deficient plans to be ‘fixed’ at examination. That has lead to a very “relaxed” approach to the production of local plans by some LPAs which has taken significant resources from the Planning Inspectorate and resulted in long delays to “fix” deficient plans.
Matthew Pennycook has also written to the Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate, Paul Morrison CBE and the Government’s Chief Planner, Joanna Averley, has written to LPA chief planning officers to inform them that the previous approach to the preparation of local plans has got to stop so that the Planning Inspectorate only continues to examine local plans that are capable of being found sound with minimal intervention and that local plans that are already in the pipeline but do not allocate sufficient land for housing development will have to be re-worked. Mr Morrison agrees that local plan preparation by LPAs should be more rigorous.
Clearly, the government is on a crusade to deliver on its election promises to “get Britain building” and recognises that planning reforms are an essential element of that mission. What do the LPAs think about their professional responsibility and moral obligation to see more homes built? It is early days of course but an indication of what some may be thinking can be gleaned from East Devon District Council’s (EDDC) response to the various announcements. Its Strategic Planning Committee met today (6 August 2024) to discuss them based on a paper that had been prepared for that purpose by EDDC Assistant Director Planning Strategy and Development Management. The paper was tabled on the agenda as a matter of urgency – as one would expect given the government’s exhortations.
EDDC has an emerging local plan that is at an advanced stage but has not yet met the trigger points that mean it will be dealt with under the current – much more relaxed – requirements and not have to meet the proposed new housing delivery targets. The paper identifies that under the new standards, EDDC would have a housing delivery target of 1,146 homes per annum with a need for a 5% buffer to be able to demonstrate a 5-year supply. The emerging local plan has a housing delivery target of 946 homes per annum without a 5% buffer and its current target is 893 homes per annum.
What would the DPM like EDDC to do in these circumstances? For local plans already at examination stage, LPAs will be allowed to continue although where there is a significant gap between the plan and the new local housing need figure, they will be expected to begin a plan immediately in the new system. Local plans that have been through all their consultation stages before submission to the Planning Inspectorate for examination (known as at Regulation 19 stage) will be allowed to continue to examination unless there is a significant gap between the plan and the new local housing need figure, in which case LPAs will be asked to rework their plans to take account of the higher figure. LPAs with local plans at earlier stages will be required to prepare plans against the revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and progress as quickly as possible.
The planning reforms are currently subject to a consultation which closes on 24 September 2024. The government has said that it intends to have the new NPPF in place by mid-October and that the new housing targets will apply to the local plan making process from a date that is 1 month post publication of the new NPPF.
The EDDC local plan is not yet at the Regulation 19 stage. The EDDC Assistant Director Planning Strategy and Development Management explained to the Strategic Planning Committee that, in these circumstances, there are two options available to it:
1.Seek to publish a publication version of the plan within 1 month of publication of the revised NPPF and ensure that the plan provides for at least 946 homes per annum plus headroom. In this circumstance the plan would be examined against the December 2023 version of the NPPF and not the new version.
2. Pursue a new Local Plan in accordance with the new NPPF and in so doing comply with the new standard method requirement of at least 1,146 homes per annum plus the required 5% buffer and any headroom. Under the consultation the plan would need to be submitted for examination no more than 18 months after the publication of the revised NPPF.
Clearly, option 2 would be the recommendation of an “agent of change and driver of growth”. What was Mr Freeman’s recommendation? It was:
“to progress plan production under the previously agreed timetable with the intention of publishing a regulation 19 plan within 1 month of publication of the new NPPF. The plan to be based on a housing requirement of at least 946 homes per year in order to benefit from the transitional arrangements proposed within the “Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system” consultation document.
He did identify some risks involved in adopting that approach and, in particular, that EDDC may not be able to get its local plan to Regulation 19 stage in time to avoid the proposed policy changes. In his words: “The risk of not keeping to this timetable is the significant risk of needing to provide for a substantially higher housing requirement in the Local Plan.” In his conclusion he said:
“In conclusion it is considered that it makes sense to progress the local plan under option 1 as set out above and try and take advantage of the proposed transitional arrangements and benefit from the reduced requirements that would apply particularly in relation to the housing requirement figure. Even if the Council were to fail to achieve this timetable, then we would simply have to pursue a plan under option 2 instead and so it is considered that there is nothing to be lost by trying to progress under the transitional arrangements.”
“Nothing to be lost” other than, of course, the opportunity to provide homes for 1,265 more households over the next 5 years.
What did the EDDC Strategic Planning Committee do? It unanimously voted for option 1. For anyone interested the discussion can be viewed here and starts at approximately 1 hour 27 minutes in to the meeting.
Over to you Minister of State and DPM.
