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The Government has unveiled plans for a major overhaul of the planning system in England, aimed at tackling the nation’s acute housing crisis and stimulating economic growth, to include new mandatory housing targets for councils and reforms to both the planning system and housing policies, with an eight-week consultation closing on 24 September.
…it sets out how and when we expect every local planning authority to rapidly create a clear, ambitious local plan…
GOV.UK writes:
This consultation seeks views on our proposed approach to revising the National Planning Policy Framework in order to achieve sustainable growth in our planning system. We are also seeking views on a series of wider policy proposals in relation to increasing planning fees, local plan intervention criteria and appropriate thresholds for certain Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.
Scope of this consultation
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is seeking views on how we might revise national planning policy to support our wider objectives. Full details on the scope of consultation are found within chapter 1. Chapter 14 contains a table of all questions within this document and signposts their relevant scope. In responding to this consultation, we would appreciate comments on any potential impacts on protected groups under the Public Sector Equality Duty. A consultation question on this is found in chapter 13.
Geographical scope
These proposals relate to England only.
… Body/bodies responsible for the consultation
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Duration
This consultation will begin on Tuesday 30 July 2024 at 2pm and close at 11.45pm on Tuesday 24 September 2024.
…. Chapter 1 – Introduction
- The Government has made clear that sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people. Our approach to delivering this growth will focus on three pillars: stability, investment and reform.
- Nowhere is decisive reform needed more urgently than in our planning system. The December 2023 changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) were disruptive to the sector and detrimental to housing supply. The Chancellor’s speech on 8 July committed to consulting on reforms to the NPPF to take a different, growth-focused approach.
- Today, we set out specific changes we propose to make immediately to the NPPF following this consultation. These changes – amending the planning framework, and universal, ambitious local plan coverage – are vital to deliver the Government’s commitments to achieve economic growth and build 1.5 million new homes. Specifically, they will:
make the standard method for assessing housing needs mandatory, requiring local authorities to plan for the resulting housing need figure, planning for a lower figure only when they can demonstrate hard constraints and that they have exhausted all other options;
reverse other changes to the NPPF made in December 2023 which were detrimental to housing supply;
implement a new standard method and calculation to ensure local plans are ambitious enough to support the Government’s manifesto commitment of 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament;
broaden the existing definition of brownfield land, set a strengthened expectation that applications on brownfield land will be approved and that plans should promote an uplift in density in urban areas;
identify grey belt land within the Green Belt, to be brought forward into the planning system through both plan and decision-making to meet development needs;
improve the operation of ‘the presumption’ in favour of sustainable development, to ensure it acts an effective failsafe to support housing supply, by clarifying the circumstances in which it applies; and, introducing new safeguards, to make clear that its application cannot justify poor quality development;
deliver affordable, well-designed homes, with new ‘golden rules’ for land released in the Green Belt to ensure it delivers in the public interest;
make wider changes to ensure that local planning authorities are able to prioritise the types of affordable homes their communities need on all housing development and that the planning system supports a more diverse housebuilding sector;
support economic growth in key sectors, aligned with the Government’s industrial strategy and future local growth plans, including laboratories, gigafactories, datacentres, digital economies and freight and logistics – given their importance to our economic future;
deliver community needs to support society and the creation of healthy places; and
support clean energy and the environment, including through support for onshore wind and renewables.
4. The proposed changes are explained in this document and set out in an accompanying draft NPPF. The Government will respond to this consultation and publish NPPF revisions before the end of the year, so that policy changes can take effect as soon as possible.
5. Alongside these specific changes, the document also calls for views on:
whether to reform the way that the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime applies to onshore wind, solar, data centres, laboratories, gigafactories and water projects, as the first step of the Government’s NSIP reform plans;
whether the local plan intervention policy criteria should be updated or removed, so the Government can intervene where necessary to ensure housing delivery; and
proposals to increase some planning fees, including for householder applications, so that local planning authorities are properly resourced to support a sustained increase in development and improve performance.
Finally, it sets out how and when we expect every local planning authority to rapidly create a clear, ambitious local plan for high quality housebuilding and economic growth….
