INDUSTRY NEWS 5
Government U-turns on ‘mutant’ planning algorithm
A million homes still await planning permission
New planning regulations prioritising housebuilding in urban centres and brownfield land rather than rural areas have been announced by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, in a U-turn on the 2020 Planning White Paper and its resulting “mutant algorithm.” Following a backlash from Conservative
MPs, particularly in the south-east, the Government is to move away from its planned formula to calculate local housing supply needs. This would have seen disproportionate numbers of homes constructed in ‘greener’ areas, particularly in the south east, it is claimed. Instead, proposals will now encourage city councils to plan more family-sized homes and “to make the most of vacant buildings and underused land to protect green spaces,” focusing on England’s 20 “largest cities and urban centres,” and in particular empty office and retail units. Jenrick has said the updated method will “help councils to enable the delivery of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, while prioritising brownfield sites and urban areas,” and pledged that the DCLG would review the ‘80-20’ rule dictating how much funding is available to local authorities to help build homes and balance funding across the country. Jenrick added: “We are reforming our
planning system to ensure it is simpler and more certain without compromising standards of design, quality and environ- mental protection.”
MIXED REACTIONS
The move to abandon the planning formula has received mixed reactions in the industry, following controversy around the launch of the Planning White Paper itself last year. Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry welcomed the news,
saying that building on brownfield land will help to “protect green spaces while unlocking the new homes that we desper- ately need.”
“Under the 80:20 rule,” he continues, “the majority of Homes England’s funding went to the least affordable, and often most affluent, areas.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, echoed this sentiment, saying it is “hugely positive the Government will revise the 80/20 rule,” as well as “make the best use of brown- field land.”
She said that the challenge however, was that “housebuilding alone will not level up the north.“ David Renard, Local Government Association (LGA) housing spokesperson, said the organisation had been “clear all along” that algorithms and formulas can never be a substitute for local knowledge and decision-making by councils and communities “who know their areas best.” He added however: “It is good to see that future Government investment will support the building of new homes, where they are needed.” Conversely, Paul Brocklehurst, chairman of the Land Promoters and Developers Federation criticised the announcement, believing that the system proposed in August “sought to find a fairer, more robust” method of targeting housing. Now, he has argued, instead of “fine tuning” the new formula to target new housing where it’s most needed, homes will be built “where a group of Conservative backbenchers in the south east think they should live.”
He said the announcement was a “very disappointing day” for those seeking a way onto the housing ladder, and where housing demand has been impacted most by the housing crisis.
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More than a million homes on land earmarked for development by councils are yet to be brought forward by developers for planning permission, new research by the Local Government Association has suggested. The LGA’s new analysis, compiled following a survey of council heads of planning, found that more than a third (1,003,600) of the 2,676,200 homes allocated in current local plans in England had not been submitted into the planning system. This amounted to an additional 4.4 years’ worth of housing supply, in addition to those already granted planning permission, and schemes under construction.
The LGA said these are houses on sites which do not yet have planning permission but have formally been identified as suitable for housing by local councils through the local plan process. Drawn up by councils, local plans allocate the number of homes to be built in local areas in consultation with local communities.
The LGA stated that its research provides evidence that councils are allocating enough land to deliver a housing pipeline “for many years ahead,” and that planning is “not a barrier to building the homes the country needs.” Cllr David Renard, LGA housing
spokesperson, said this is “another example of a broken housing delivery system,” and argued that councils need to be given further powers to ensure homes are brought forward by developers.
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