Updated National Planning Policy Framework to Target Most Expensive Housing Areas

IN UPDATED planning rules under the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published today, areas with the most expensive housing will be targeted for more housebuilding.

Councils will be required to review their green belt boundaries to meet targets totalling 370,000 new houses across the country. They must identify and prioritise lower quality ‘grey belt’ land which is be defined in the updated NPPF.

Grey belt land is land in the Green Belt that is previously developed land a or any other land that “does not strongly contribute to any of purposes [of the green belt]”.

Any development decisions must meet new ‘golden rules’ of priorities: brownfield first; grey belt second; affordable homes; public services and infrastructure; and improvements to green spaces.

Brownfield land must continue to be the first port of call for any new development with a default presumption of permission. The government is also exploring ‘brownfield passports’ for urban area with more details to be set out next year.

Councils and developers will also need to consider social rent when building new homes and local leaders have greater powers to build affordable homes.

The government has also committed to updating the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code in Spring next year.

National Planning Policy Framework Update

Areas must commit to timetables for their new plans within 12 weeks of the updated NPPF or ministers will use intervention powers to ensure plans are put in place.

To support this, councils will receive £100 million next year that can be used to hire more staff and consultants to carry out technical studies and site assessments. An increase of planning fees is designed to cover the costs and an additional 300 planning officers are funded.

Under the previous planning framework just one third of local authorities have adopted a local plan within the last five years. Meanwhile, 1.3 million households are on social housing waiting lists and a record number of households – including 160,000 children – are living in temporary accommodation.

Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Angela Rayner said: “I will not hesitate to do what it takes to build 1.5 million new homes over five years and deliver the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation. The question is where the homes and local services people expect are built, not whether they are built at all.”

INDUSTRY COMMENT

Shifting the Dial

Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB said: “The pragmatic approach to the green belt and local targets is much needed as they may help push through homes where they’re needed most. But not revising the small site allocation in local plans is going to come as a disappointment for small house builders, who desperately need available land to build on, which they’ve been reporting as a blocker for years. The Government’s reforms must be seen as the start of the process to help diversify an increasingly restricted housing market, as the current changes don’t shift the dial enough for micro house builders.”

“Other fundamental issues are also at play. Small house builders are at the sharp end of the planning system, often having to jump through the same hoops as volume developers. While any increase to planning officer numbers is welcome, the 300 proposed is a drop in the ocean and will not turn the tide for the nation’s local house builders. SME house builders frequently cite poor resourcing of planning departments and the subsequent poor communication from them as the number one reason they can’t build new homes. We need to see this change.”

Countryside Remains Under Threat

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.”

Planning Only One Part of the Picture

Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, LGIU, said: “Local government is eager to support the Government’s house building agenda. But planning is only one part of this picture. House building has to be seen in the context of local economic development, skills provision and public service delivery.

“As leaders of place – councils are not just concerned with delivering houses but with building homes and communities.

“It’s right that the Government has high expectations of councils, but they also need to provide them with the support that will enable them to rise to this challenge.”

Less Rigid Approach

Stephen Teagle, Chair of the Board of The Housing Forum said: “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 green belt, 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.”

>> Read more about housebuilding in the news