Date published: 08 October 2024
Labour’s first flagship policy consultation gave us the opportunity to submit recommendations we believe will help unlock housing delivery.
It follows Angela Rayner’s announcement that the Government aims to build 1.5million homes over the next five years.
During her speech in July, the Deputy Prime Minister laid out their planning reform plans as a pathway to this target.
Registered providers were given the chance to submit their views on the proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The consultation opened on July 30 and closed nearly two months later on September 24.
It covered a wide range of planning issues, which touched many of our key development areas.
While we agreed with the majority of proposals, we urged Government to consider our recommendations on a number of issues.
They included the release of grey and green belt areas for development, extension work relating to overcrowding and rural housing.
What did we ask for?
- Simplifying the planning process for rural exception sites to support with developing sites to meet local housing needs. The NPPF should also support the release of small sites in rural areas for sustainable development.
- Further guidance for local authorities to promote a mix of tenures that reflect local need (social and affordable rent, shared ownership and market sale.)
- That the 50% provision of green belt sites be released for affordable housing clause come with more guidance on the tenure mix.
- A national fee regime for each local planning authority to provide clarity and certainty. Setting their own planning application fee provides the potential for inefficiencies to be ignored.
- To maintain critical review and transparency of local authority housing performance. We did not support the removal of the Annual Position Statements but would support editing the text to provide a clearer, better method for driving delivery.
- To avoid the situation where brownfield sites that have been granted permission via a brownfield passport are counted towards delivery when there is no funding provided to deliver these sites, but local planning authorities resist viable greenfield sites on the pretext permission had already been secured for brownfield sites.
- A number of considerations on Green Belt land use, including tightening of guidelines, a rigorous review of the extent of the Green Belt and balancing the need to build more homes with the need to maintain rural/semi-rural character.
- A standardisation of strategy and policy so developers don’t have to navigate different transitional agreements across local authorities.
- That upward extensions are supported to help alleviate issues caused by overcrowding where it is not suitable to relocate a family due to child needs or other specific concerns.
James Bradbury, Director of Development Operations, said: “The new Government’s commitment to housebuilding has been a positive first step toward building more homes for those who need them most.
“The proposed NPPF reforms include a wide range of elements Labour hope will help streamline the planning process across different types of land use while providing solutions to housing challenges in both urban and rural areas.
“So many of these factors touch the work our dedicated teams. It is vitally important we make our voice heard on these reforms to give these teams the tools they need to deliver more homes.
“Many of the proposals have our backing, however we made suggestions we believe will help provide clarity across the sector.
“We hope Government will consider these suggestions.”