KnowHOW Essential reading for commercial property professionals who need to be in the know THE HOUSING WHITE PAPERFixing our Broken Housing MarketYesterday saw the publication of the Government’s long anticipated White Paper on Housing, titled “Fixing our broken housing market”. The Paper announces that the “broken housing market is one of the greatest barriers to progress in Britain today” and in order to build a stronger and fairer Britain, there is a need to “break down these barriers by taking difficult decisions that are right for Britain in the long term”. The Paper outlines a comprehensive approach to tackle failures at every point in the system setting out that there is a need:
In this KnowHOW we have reviewed the the White Paper and identified some of the key themes of particular interest to the development industry.
Local Plan Making The Paper proposes that the Government will set out regulations for adopted plans to be reviewed at least once every five years to ensure they remain robust and up-to-date. Where Councils cannot meet their housing requirement, they must work constructively with neighbouring authorities on how best to rectify this and to prepare a Statement of Common Ground. The Paper also reiterates the Written Statement from July 2015 by stating that the Government will intervene in areas where there is no Local Plan. Of significance is a new proposal to introduce a standard methodology for the assessment of housing need at a local authority level. Currently this is set out in Planning Policy Guidance but it is still open to a degree of flexibility and is also subject to much debate at the examination stage. The Government believes that the lack of a standard method leads to costly and lengthy delays in the development of Local Plans and that a more standardised approach would not only increase transparency but also speed up delivery. In the absence of an up-to-date local or strategic plan, the Government proposes that by April 2018 the new methodology would apply as the default position for assessing five year housing land supply and housing delivery.
The Right Land for Homes The Government proposes to reinforce national policy to make clear that Green Belt boundaries should only be amended when it can be demonstrated that Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) have examined all other reasonable options in order to meet their housing requirement, including making effective use of brownfield land and optimising development densities. Where land is to be removed, policies should require the impact to be offset via means such as compensatory improvements. The Government may also explore whether greater financial contributions should be sought from development approved as a consequence of land being released from the Green Belt and is inviting suggestions on these proposals. It remains to be seen how these concepts might evolve. The Government proposes to amend the NPPF in order to:
Delivering Homes Quickly The Government is interested in views on the implications of reducing the timescale for implementation of permissions from three years to two years, except where it can be shown development viability could be hindered. An applicant’s track record on delivery could also be taken into account in the determination of planning applications where previous permissions haven’t been implemented. The White Paper also outlines proposals to:
Diversifying the Market Government wishes to address the lack of competition in the house building sector and increase the number of small to medium sized builders in the market. Measures include the £3 billion Home Building Fund launched in October 2016 and a new Accelerated Construction programme to partner with SMEs. The Paper focuses on the promotion of custom build homes and will ensure the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) exemption remains in place until longer term reforms to developer contributions are explored. A shift toward greater support for the rental sector is also shown. Through the Paper the Government is consulting on measures to support more build to rent developments with key proposals being:
Other proposals include support for the development of modern construction methods, such as modular or pre-fabricated homes, through the Accelerated Construction Programme and the Home Builders Fund with the aim of boosting supply and accelerating physical delivery of new homes.
Helping People Now On this much anticipated topic, the Government has not suggested, as some expected, a mandatory requirement for 20% lower cost “starter homes” in new developments. Rather, it is suggested that there will be a clear policy expectation in the NPPF that requires housing sites to deliver a minimum of 10% “affordable home ownership units”. The Paper goes on to say that it will be for local areas to work with developers to agree an appropriate level of delivery of starter homes, alongside other affordable home ownership and rented tenures. This is in response to concerns that a mandatory requirement would impact on the provision of other affordable home types. The Paper sets out that there will be NPPF changes to allow for more brownfield land to be released for developments that contain a greater quantum of starter homes, through:
Some Key Implications Sajid Javid announced in his press interviews prior to the release of the White Paper that successive Governments have “ducked” the issue of housing for far too long. In response to such strong words there has been keen anticipation therefore of the delayed Paper and its range of potential reforms. What has been published is essentially a series of potential measures which will be subject to further consultation. Some of the proposed measures had been mooted in the run up to publication, such as the encouragement for modular homes and higher building densities. In themselves these are not new concepts, however, the Government’s potential express support via national policy is new (for example the NPPF is currently silent on modular housing) and will have ramifications for both the development of Local Plans and the assessment of individual planning applications. A key aspect of the Paper is the concept of a standardised methodology for establishing the housing requirement at the local authority level. A hugely complex area of forward planning, any reform which seeks to streamline and simplify this aspect is very welcome and has the capacity to speed up both plan making and reduce time spent at local plan examinations arguing the merits of differing approaches. This may also help bring clarity to planning appeals where there is no five year housing land supply in place. The development industry is likely to face increased costs through a rise in planning application fees and a potential new charging system for planning appeals. The industry is all too familiar with the crippling effect of delays to the determination of planning applications and the significant lead in times for the consideration of most major planning appeals. Should the introduction of these additional charges lead to a more consistent and enhanced service for applicants then this may be seen as a fair trade off. There is as yet however no indication as to the potential scale of any charge that might be set by the Planning Inspectorate. The Government acknowledges that the level of new house building in England is much too low. Some commentators argue that “land banking” is part of the problem. It is undoubtedly a controversial proposal therefore that the delivery record of an applicant may be treated as a material consideration in the determination of planning applications. Whether such an approach could be seen to be lawful is for debate, however, the weaknesses of such an approach are readily apparent in the context of outline planning applications, where the end developer may not be known at the time of determination. The proposal that the standard time limit for the implementation of development could be reduced from three to two years is unlikely to be popular amongst the industry. A “one size fits all” approach is unlikely to be helpful in this regard, given the longer development lead in times associated with major sites and those with the requirement for physical remediation or other complex technical issues, where a two year limit could be seen as unreasonable.
The full White Paper can be viewed here . Details of a public consultation published alongside the White Paper (open until 2 May) can be found at Annex A. Responses can be submitted here . HOW Planning will be releasing further KnowHOW updates as the Government’s proposals are translated into policy and guidance, following the consultation period.
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Conor Vallelly
Christopher Bradshaw |