Category: Local plans

Can Local Plan Policies Require Developers To Go Beyond National Standards?

The answer is already relatively clear in relation to biodiversity net gain, in that the latest Planning Practice Guidance (14 February 2024) says this:

“Plan-makers should not seek a higher percentage than the statutory objective of 10% biodiversity net gain, either on an area-wide basis or for specific allocations for development unless justified. To justify such policies they will need to be evidenced including as to local need for a higher percentage, local opportunities for a higher percentage and any impacts on viability for development. Consideration will also need to be given to how the policy will be implemented.” (Paragraph: 006 Reference ID: 74-006-20240214).

[This is of course not to say that developers cannot choose to commit to provide more biodiversity net gain than is required. If they so choose, the decision maker should give appropriate weight to that commitment – see NRS Saredon Aggregates Limited v Secretary of State (Eyre J, 16 November 2023)].

But for a long time the answer has been less clear when it comes to whether local planning authorities can impose minimum energy efficiency standards which go beyond what is required by way of national policy or legislation and it is that lack of clarity which led to R (Rights Community Action) v Secretary of State (Lieven J, 20 February 2024). The case concerned a judicial review, brought by a national campaign group, of an inspectors’ report into the Salt Cross Garden Village Area Action Plan. Salt Cross is a project being promoted by Grosvenor Developments Limited to the north of the A40 near Eynsham, West Oxfordshire. The challenge was to the inspectors’ finding that the plan’s policy 2 (“net zero carbon development”) was unsound because it was inconsistent with national policy, which they interpreted as advising that policies should not be used to set conditions above the equivalent of level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Policy 2 was certainly prescriptive:

The inspectors tested this policy against what they took to be the “extant expression of national policy”, namely a 2015 written ministerial statement. They stated:

“123. In relation to the building performance standards in Policy 2 as they would apply to dwellings, there is a question of whether the approach is consistent with national policy. The issue arises by virtue of Paragraph 154(b) of the NPPF and the need for local requirements for the sustainability of buildings to reflect the Government’s policy for national technical standards.

124. Although various Government consultations linked to the Future Homes Standard have signalled potential ways forwards, the current national planning policy relating to the endorsement of energy efficiency standards exceeding the Building Regulations remains the Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) on Plan Making dated 25 March 2015. This is supported by the associated NPPG dated from 2019 which explains that the 2015 WMS sets out the Government’s expectation that policies should not be used to set conditions on planning expectation that policies should not be used to set conditions on planning permissions with requirements above the equivalent of the energy requirement of Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes (approximately 20% above the 2013 Building Regulations across the building mix). The 2015 WMS remains an extant expression of national policy.”

They considered “there are inconsistencies between the approach set out in Policy 2 of the AAP and the national policy position explained above relating to exceeding the Building Regulations. In light of our conclusions relating to whether the overall approach in Policy 2 is justified, we do not regard the requirements as reasonable”. They also considered the requirements to be insufficiently flexible:

“137. The detailed requirements also do not reflect the evolving nature of zero carbon building policy, where standards inevitably will change in response to technological and market advancement and more stringent nationally set standards, including within the Building Regulations. Policy 2 contains little flexibility to allow for such changes, or indeed to respond to detailed master planning that will evolve over time. This brings into question whether the evidence that supports the standards justifies the approach as a sound one.

138. We appreciate that Policy 2 provides a high degree of certainty about the standards that will be applied over the lifetime of the development. However, even judged on a proportionate basis, the evidence that underpins the prescriptive requirements lacks the necessary depth and sense of realism to show that Policy 2 represents an appropriate strategy. As such, Policy 2 is not justified.”

They recommended a modification that “substitutes the wording of Policy 2 to introduce the need for an ambitious approach to the use of renewable energy, sustainable design, construction methods and energy efficiency. This is to be assessed at the planning application stage in response to an energy statement. The modification sets out what should be included within an energy statement, including elements set out in the submitted policy but without the specific, stringent requirements which we have found are neither consistent with national policy nor justified.”

The 2015 written ministerial statement did indeed advise that local plan policies exceeding minimum energy efficiency standards should not go beyond level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes:

“For the specific issue of energy performance, local planning authorities will continue to be able to set and apply policies in their Local Plans which require compliance with energy performance standards that exceed the energy requirements of Building Regulations until commencement of amendments to the Planning and Energy Act 2008 in the Deregulation Bill. This is expected to happen alongside the introduction of zero carbon homes policy in late 2016. The Government has stated that, from then, the energy performance requirements in Building Regulations will be set at a level equivalent to the (outgoing) Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4. Until the amendment is commenced, we would expect local planning authorities to take this statement of the Government’s intention into account in applying existing policies and not set conditions with requirements above a Code level 4 equivalent. This statement does not modify the National Planning Policy Framework policy allowing the connection of new housing development to low carbon infrastructure such as district heating networks.” (key passage underlined).

You may remember the context of that statement. The non-statutory Code for Sustainable Homes was at that point being formally being withdrawn. But the amendments to the Planning and Energy Act that were referred to in the 2015 WMS were never brought into force and the Government stated in 2021 that this meant that “local planning authorities will retain powers to set local energy efficiency standards for new homes.” Energy standards were amended in 2021 in excess of level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. The closest there then was to a clear statement of the Government’s position was its January 2022 response to a Select Committee report on local government and the path to net zero:

“The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that the planning system should support the transition to a low-carbon future in a changing climate, taking full account of flood risk and coastal change. It should help to shape places in ways that contribute to radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, minimise vulnerability and improve resilience; encourage the reuse of existing resources, including the conversion of existing buildings; and support renewable and low-carbon energy and associated infrastructure. The NPPF expects Local Plans to take account of climate change over the longer term; local authorities should adopt proactive strategies to reduce carbon emissions and recognise the objectives and provisions of the Climate Change Act 2008. Local authorities have the power to set local energy efficiency standards that go beyond the minimum standards set through the Building Regulations, through the Planning and Energy Act 2008. In January 2021, we clarified in the Future Homes Standard consultation response that in the immediate term we will not amend the Planning and Energy Act 2008, which means that local authorities still retain powers to set local energy efficiency standards that go beyond the minimum standards set through the Building Regulations. In addition, there are clear policies in the NPPF on climate change as set out above. The Framework does not set out an exhaustive list of the steps local authorities might take to meet the challenge of climate change and they can go beyond this.“ (key passages underlined)

Clear as mud!

Lieven J considered that the inspectors (perhaps unsurprisingly in the light of this confusion) had misunderstood what current Government policy was:

“The WMS has to be interpreted in accordance with the mischief it was seeking to address, and with an “updating construction”, see by analogy with statute, Bennion on Statutory Construction (Eighth Edition) at Chapter 14. The WMS is not a statute but a policy, but even with a statute the mischief is a highly relevant consideration in interpretation, and the principle of applying an updating construction is well established. In order to make sense of the WMS in the circumstances that applied in 2023 it is essential to have regard to the fact that the restriction on setting conditions above Code Level 4, upon which the Inspectors relied in IR124, no longer apply.

In my view, the Inspectors’ interpretation neither makes sense on the words, seen in their present context, or of the mischief to which it was applying. To interpret the WMS so as to prevent or restrict the ability of the LPA to set a standard higher than Level 4 is plainly wrong in the light of subsequent events. For this reason, the Inspectors erred in law in their approach by finding that Policy 2 of the AAP was inconsistent with the WMS.

I note that this analysis entirely accords with the position of the Government in its response to the Select Committee on Housing Communities and Local Government in January 2022, when it said: “Local authorities have the power to set local energy efficiency standards that go beyond the minimum standards set through the Building Regulations….” Therefore the Government itself did not appear to be suggesting that the policy in the WMS remains extant.”

The policy position has in fact moved on further since the inspectors reached their findings and is, I hope, now clearer:

Consultation closes on 7 March 2024 in relation to the Government’s current consultation on the Future Homes and Buildings standards to be delivered by way of changes to Part 6, Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations (12 December 2023)

In his accompanying written ministerial statement housing minister Lee Rowley says this about local authorities’ ability to set their own local energy efficiency standards:

““Since [the 2015 WMS], the introduction of the 2021 Part L uplift to the Building Regulations set national minimum energy efficiency standards that are higher than those referenced in the 2015 WMS rendering it effectively moot. A further change to energy efficiency building regulations is planned for 2025 meaning that homes built to that standard will be net zero ready and should need no significant work to ensure that they have zero carbon emissions as the grid continue to decarbonise. Compared to varied local standards, these nationally applied standards provide much-needed clarity and consistency for businesses, large and small, to invest and prepare to build net-zero ready homes.

The improvement in standards already in force, alongside the ones which are due in 2025, demonstrates the Government’s commitment to ensuring new properties have a much lower impact on the environment in the future. In this context, the Government does not expect plan-makers to set local energy efficiency standards for buildings that go beyond current or planned buildings regulations. The proliferation of multiple, local standards by local authority area can add further costs to building new homes by adding complexity and undermining economies of scale. Any planning policies that propose local energy efficiency standards for buildings that go beyond current or planned buildings regulation should be rejected at examination if they do not have a well-reasoned and robustly costed rationale that ensures:

  • That development remains viable, and the impact on housing supply and affordability is considered in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework.
  • The additional requirement is expressed as a percentage uplift of a dwelling’s Target Emissions Rate (TER) calculated using a specified version of the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP).

Where plan policies go beyond current or planned building regulations, those polices should be applied flexibly to decisions on planning applications and appeals where the applicant can demonstrate that meeting the higher standards is not technically feasible, in relation to the availability of appropriate local energy infrastructure (for example adequate existing and planned grid connections) and access to adequate supply chains.” (key passages underlined).

Isn’t all this where national development management policies would be particularly useful?

Simon Ricketts, 24 February 2024

Personal views, et cetera

Alluring Temptress

It’s obvious now why the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill was named as it was. Having now received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 it is formally the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, or Lura to its friends. 

I consulted the oracle which is The Bump website:

“Origin: German

Meaning: Alluring temptress

Lura is a feminine name of German origin that means “alluring temptress.” A variation of the traditional name Lorelei, Lura is a modern alternative with the same fascinating history and connotations. In legends, Lorelei was the name of a maiden who would lure fishermen to their deaths by singing her haunting song. Today, Lorelai is the name of a rock face along the Rhine River in Germany. With connotations of otherworldly beauty and natural wonder, Lura is an excellent option for your little one.”

Very clever Mr Gove, very clever. 

(Although there is also the LURA, which is the Leeds University Rocketry Association. And there is a Portuguese singer, Lura.  Planning law is going to get even more confusing).

As is usual, it will take a bit of time for the Act to be printed. In the meantime you either have to trawl through the various sets of amendments on the Parliament website, take your chances with the Government’s press statement or (more usefully) delve into the various summaries already on social media. I would recommend for instance:

  • Lichfields’ summary of the planning-related sections
  • Nicola Gooch’s 26 October 2023 blog post 

I also very much recommend, as a wider update, the latest Planning Law (With Chickens) podcast episode, recorded that day by my Town colleagues, Victoria McKeegan and Nikita Sellers. The chat covers Lura but also much else of what has been happening in our world over the last few months. 

Because it isn’t all about the Act, the operation of which is dependent on much further secondary legislation to come. The Act will only change the system’s hardware. A software update, in the form of an updated version of the NPPF following the December 2022 consultation draft, is expected any day now. 

In the meantime, Michael Gove’s letter to local planning authorities  dated 8 September 2023 is worth a read if you haven’t seen it. I’m not sure it was initially online. For instance:

“First and foremost, this Government is unashamedly supportive of development and regeneration in and around existing town and city centres. This is how we will get homes built where it makes sense, support growth, and enable people to get on the property ladder.

 And making it easier to progress such developments is front of mind as we finalise the update to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), following our consultation which attracted more than 26,000 responses. In that context, and ahead of the publication of the refreshed NPPF in the autumn, I wanted to make clear my expectation that:

• development should proceed on sites that are adopted in a local plan with full input from the local community unless there are strong reasons why it cannot;

  • councils should be open and pragmatic in agreeing changes to developments where conditions mean that the original plan may no longer be viable, rather than losing the development wholesale or seeing development mothballed; and

 • better use should be made of small pockets of brownfield land by being more permissive, so more homes can be built more quickly, where and how it makes sense, giving more confidence and certainty to SME builders.”

[That viability statement is particularly topical]. 

“My intention is for the regulations, policy and guidance necessary for the preparation of the first new-style local plans to be in place by Autumn 2024. In the new system, planning authorities will need to prepare, consult on and adopt plans within a 30-month timeframe – and follow the same process for each subsequent update of their plans, including examination by PINS.

In the interim, we want local authorities to continue adopting ambitious local plans, which is why we set out fair transitional arrangements in our current consultation on implementing the plan-making reforms. As part of these arrangements, we confirmed our intent that the last day to submit a plan under the current system will be 30 June 2025. I want to reiterate that local authorities without an up-to-date local plan are likely to be subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development when facing applications.”

30 months.. There’s that haunting song again. 

Simon Ricketts, 28 October 2023

Personal views, et cetera

Lorelei by William Turner

LURB Lords Latest

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill resumed its progress through Report stage in the House of Lords this week, with sessions on 4 and 6 September. This post seeks to identify the main amendments made in those sessions.

I know what you’re all asking – what about the Government’s late proposed amendment to address the nutrient neutrality issue (see my 29 August 2023 blog post The Government’s Big Move On Nutrient Neutrality – Now We Have Seen The Government’s LURB Amendment)? That will be debated at a further session next week, on 13 September 2023. The proposed amendment was in the meantime the subject of an urgent question tabled in the House of Commons by the Green Party’s Caroline Lucas on 5 September 2023. The debate is interesting as a hint of what awaits both in the Lords on 13 September but then once the Bill returns to the Commons for its final stages:

  • The Speaker agreed that the urgent question was appropriate notwithstanding the Secretary’s written ministerial statement the previous day: “I expect Ministers to come to the House, as I did not think a written ministerial statement was the way to inform the House.”
  • On being challenged that the amendment amounted to a regression from current standards of environmental protection, the minister, Rachel Mclean responded: “It is important to consider what we are talking about here, which is unblocking 100,000 homes that add very little in terms of pollution. To be clear, our approach means that there will be no overall loss in environmental outcomes. Not only do the measures that we are taking address the very small amount of nutrient run-off from new housing, but at the same time, we are investing in the improvement of environmental outcomes. We do not agree that this is regression on environmental standards. We are taking direct action to continue to protect the environment and ensure that housing can be brought forward in areas where people need it.”
  • A nuanced question from shadow minister Matthew Pennycook:

“As a result of the Government’s failure over many years to make decisive progress in tackling the main sources of problem nutrients, namely farming and waste water treatment works, the requirements for nutrient neutrality in sensitive river catchments present a challenge to securing planning permission for new housing development. It is therefore right in Labour’s view that the operation of the rules around nutrient neutrality is reviewed with a view to addressing problematic delays and increasing the pace at which homes can be delivered in these areas.

However, we have serious concerns about the approach that the Government have decided on. Not only does it involve disapplying the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, but it does not legally secure the additional funding pledges to deliver nutrient management programmes and does not provide for a legal mechanism to ensure that housing developers contribute towards mitigation.

I put the following questions to the Minister: what advice did the Government receive from Natural England about potential reform of the laws around nutrient neutrality? Did it offer a view on the Government’s proposed approach? Given the amount of mitigation currently available in the pipeline, which is estimated at allowing for approximately 72,000 homes, did the Government consider an approach based on the habitat regulations assessment derogation and a revised credit mitigation system to front-load permissions and provide for future compensatory schemes? If so, why did they dismiss that option? What assessment have the Government made of the impact of their proposed approach on the nascent market in mitigation credits, and investor confidence in nature markets more generally? Why on earth do Ministers believe developers will voluntarily contribute to mitigation under the proposed approach?

Finally, the Government claim their approach will see 100,000 planning permissions expedited between now and 2030. Given that house building activity is falling sharply and the pipeline for future development is being squeezed—not least as a result of housing and planning policy decisions made by this Conservative Government—what assessment has the Department made of the number of permissions that its disruptive approach will unlock within the first 12 months of its operation?”

  • A rather pithy summation of the position, from the chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, Clive Betts:

“This is hardly a new problem, is it? The Court decision was in 2018, yet last year we had the levelling-up Bill, which was really a planning Bill with a bit of levelling up added on—no mention of the issue there. In December we had major consultations on changes to the national planning policy framework—no mention of the issue there. The Committee wrote to the Minister and asked how many more consultations on planning issues there would be this year. We were given nine of them—no mention of the issue there. If it is such a serious issue, why has it taken the Government so long to act? It looks like the Government are making it up as they go along. This is a panicked response from the Government to the collapsing numbers of housing starts which the Minister simply wants to do something—anything—about.“

Turning now to the Report sessions on 4 and 6 September 2023 , I set out below the main amendments agreed upon (subject to them surviving the return of the Bill to the Commons). The full list of amendments is much longer and for the detail you can click on the following:

Hansard debate 4 September 2023

Minutes to proceedings 4 September 2023

Hansard debate 6 September 2023 (Part 1)

Minutes to proceedings 6 September 2023 (Part 1)

Hansard debate 6 September 2023 (Part 2)

Minutes to proceedings 6 September 2023 (Part 2)

[Many thanks to my Town Legal colleague Amy Penrose for detailed work on all this].

Amendment 184A

This amendment clarifies that inserted subsection (5B) in section 38 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires a determination under the planning Acts to be made in accordance with the development plan and any national development management policies, taken together.

So the replacement to section 38 (6) would now read: “the determination must be made in accordance with the development plan and any national development management policies taken together, unless material considerations strongly indicate otherwise”. What does “taken together“ add? Perhaps to avoid an interpretation that the determination needed to be both in accordance with the development plan and in accordance with any national development management policies – instead look at it all together in applying planning judgment as to whether the determination is in accordance? It’s great being a lawyer.

Amendment 190 (tabled by Baroness Thornhill) – voted through against the Government 186 – 180

The amendment requires the Secretary of State to carry out a sustainability appraisal before designating a national development management policy; it must comply with public consultation requirements and a process of parliamentary scrutiny based on processes set out in the Planning Act 2008 (as amended) for designating National Policy Statements, and it must contain explanations of the reasons for the policy, including an explanation of how the policy set out takes account of Government policy relating to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.

Amendment 191 (tabled by Lord Ravensdale) – voted through against the Government 182 – 172

The amendment places a duty on the Secretary of State and relevant planning authorities respectively to have special regard to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change with respect to national policy, local plan-making and planning decisions.

Amendment 191A (tabled by Lord Crisp) – voted through against the Government 158 – 149

The amendment specifically places a duty on the Secretary of State to promote healthy homes and neighbourhoods – a huge success for the Town and Country Planning Association’s Campaign for Healthy Homes.

(see also a detailed Schedule to be inserted into the Bill setting out for instance what is meant by healthy homes principles – amendment 191B).

Amendment 193A (tabled by Lord Best) – voted through against the Government 173 – 156

The amendment requires local plans to “identify the local nature and scale of housing need in the local planning authority’s area and must make provision for sufficient social rent housing, to eliminate homelessness within a reasonable period as stipulated in the updated local plan, and to provide housing for persons registered on the local housing authority’s allocation scheme within the meaning of section 166A of the Housing Act 1996.” It would apply both “in relation to social housing provided both by the local housing authority where it retains its own housing stock and by private registered providers of social housing”.  The information would need to be updated at least annually.

These are all significant interventions. Let’s see the approach that the Government takes back in the Commons. A motion will also be needed to carry over the Bill to the next Parliamentary session, without which we will see (wait for the LURB pun, wait for it, wait) .. LURB’s labours lost.

Simon Ricketts, 9 September 2023

Personal views, et cetera

Photo courtesy of Peter Kostov via Unsplash

Local Plans System Fails Soundness Test

A vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping:

Why don’t we test the whole local plans system against the soundness requirement in paragraph 35 of the National Planning Policy Framework?

Of course it’s not an exact fit but what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander (an expression which also occurs to me whenever we have criticism from Government directed at local authorities for not moving faster). Is the current local plans system, for instance:

  • positively prepared
  • justified
  • effective
  • consistent with national policy?

Plainly not.

Is it a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet the country’s objectively assessed needs? First of all, the 300,000 homes target, whilst undoubtedly being too low, has not been objectively assessed (so as, if nothing else, to reassure the sceptical) and secondly there is an increasing disconnect between that aspiration and local plan making reality.

Is it an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence? Reasonable alternatives? Evidence? Not how national policy-making seems to work.

Deliverable? Of course not.

Consistent with (other) national policy? Given the vital policy objectives to be delivered by proper forward planning – housing, economic growth, climate change mitigation, levelling up – again it’s a no.

I also query whether the proposed changes in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill and more detailed implementation proposals, currently being consulted upon, would get to the root of the problems.

This thought occurred when reading the Tandridge local plan inspector’s 10 August 2023  letter to the council’s chief executive, in which the inspector (Philip Lewis) concludes that his concerns as to the soundness of the plan are such that he invites the council to withdraw it, failing which he will write a report setting out his reasoning.

His letter follows a procedural meeting on 27 July 2023 which you can watch on line here . A detailed paper was provided for the inspector by the council ahead of that meeting as a final, unsuccessful, attempt to avoid this outcome. The council issued a statement on 22 August 2023 indicating that it will look to resolve its response to the inspector’s letter at a meeting of the council’s planning policy committee on 21 September 2023.

I was taken back to the opening day of that examination, 8 October 2019, on legal compliance. I’m not sure that I have ever been at a local plan examination session with quite so many lawyers in attendance (not a good thing).

Mr Lewis’ concerns include:

  • unresolved highway capacity issues following the subsequent refusal of HIF funding for transport infrastructure, including works to junction 6 of the M25 on which the deliverability of the south of Godstone new settlement option was predicated– together with the consequent need for further lengthy transport assessment and modelling work
  • the need for the sustainability appraisal to reconsider reasonable alternatives in the light of the change in circumstances
  • the need for the council’s 2017 Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment to be updated.
  • The fact that we are already half way through the plan period of the submitted plan which is 2013 to 2033 (incidentally is there anything more absurd than these plans which literally are planning for the past?)
  • The fact that much of the evidence base for the plan is now out of date, given for instance changes in the Use Classes Order.

Of course, it took time for the scale of the problems facing the council to become clear, particularly on the question of the deliverability of the south of Godstone new settlement proposal once the Government had refused HIF funding for the necessary infrastructure improvements. I know that it is in the public interest that plans generally should not be found unsound and that time should be given to enable plan-making authorities to do what may be needed to arrive at a sound plan, but was it necessary for the process to take almost four years before we finally get to a conclusion that has seemed on the cards for a long time now, sending the authority right back to the beginning?

I don’t want to make this a piece about the Tandridge plan and its site-specific issues. Because, if you have been out of the country for a few years I can reassure you that the York examination is also still underway – the first hearing session having been on 10 December 2019 – and indeed the Welwyn Hatfield examination is still underway – the first hearing session having been on 21 September 2017!

There is a common factor with all three examinations: these are authorities with large areas of green belt within their boundaries and where their local housing needs cannot be met without releasing land from the green belt, leading to politically-charged debates as to

  • the extent to which any planned shortfall is acceptable;
  • whether sufficiently exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated so as to justify release;
  • the selection of appropriate sites (including the extent to which there is reliance on new settlements rather than more dispersed patterns of growth); and as to
  • whether the selected sites are in fact deliverable.

In areas where housing supply is so constrained, and without any definitive Government guidance as to how these matters are to be resolved, or required timescale for so doing, or consistent, credible, penalties for not having an up to date plan in place, is it any wonder that we are where we are?

To the extent that the Government’s planning reforms would:

  • weaken the role of the standard method as a starting point for determining how many homes need to be planned for;
  • remove any requirement for authorities to review green belt boundaries to meet housing needs;
  • replace the duty to cooperate with an undefined “alignment” test, and
  • propose removing the “justified” limb of the soundness test

how precisely would these changes assist in say Tandridge, York or Welwyn Hatfield?  Would the idea be to allow the authority the freedom to plan to undershoot its local needs by a huge margin and simply accept the consequences of the lack of supply of homes for those needing to live in those areas – for family connections or work or for the sake of achieving balanced communities rather than the lucky few behind a raised drawbridge, perish the thought – to allow the situation to reach boiling point? The process improvements set out in the LURB will help at the margins but will not ease (1) the difficult local politics of arriving at a sensible plan for submission or (2) the difficult task of the inspector at examination (it’s not the local development management policies, or the lack of digital planning, or even the extent of supporting evidence required, which has held up these plans!).

Not only have we had these marathon local plan examinations, akin to the infamous (at the time, maybe now forgotten) Leeds local plan inquiry, the length of which I recall as one of the catalysts for the 2004 Act system in the first place, but we are also seeing authorities trying to read between the lines as to the latitude they perceive that they may now have.

For instance, take Three Rivers Council which has now torn up its draft plan and published a statement announcing that is starting work on an alternative plan that will “protect 98% of [its] precious green belt”, proposing that “the new housing figure for the district over the next 18 years should be 4,852 as opposed to the Government’s high target of 11,466.”

Or take Lichfield District Council which today (25 August 2023) announced that it was proposing to withdraw its submitted plan from examination:

“Councillor Alex Farrell, Portfolio Holder for Housing and the Local Plan, says “It is clear to me that our proposed new Local Plan is not suitable, and I’d like to see a new approach to housing that suits our local communities. We want to explore the idea of a new settlement in the district, as opposed to the current approach that is suffocating local communities with a disproportionate amount of housebuilding without sufficient infrastructure.”

He continues “It’s clear that the proposed new Local Plan 2040, which was submitted for examination last year, was not appropriate given both the changes that we have seen (and continue to see take place) in government national policy in the four years since it was initiated, plus the level of dissatisfaction we heard from residents about it in its current form.  It became evident that the proposed Local Plan no longer resonates with the evolving needs of our district, and we needed to change.  

“We only have two options. One; progress with the currently submitted plan or two, regroup and build a strong, strategic vision for the district that people can support and adopt. We recommend that we take the second option to deliver a strategy that is appropriate for the district today, and in the future, and therefore our recommendation is to withdraw the current plan and work in consultation with our residents and stakeholders to develop a new approach.” 

When is the Government going to stabilise what, in local plan making terms, seems to me to be equivalent to a run on the markets? (Although in the world of planning that’s obviously a very slow walk rather than anything approaching a run).  I’ve previously described Michael Gove’s statements on planning reform as akin to Trussenomics in terms of the (presumably wholly unintended) effect that they have been having on plan making. How else to describe it? Doesn’t something need to be said…?

The sounds of silence.

Simon Ricketts, 25 August 2023

Personal views, et cetera

The Message

Double-digit inflation. Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a strike at the station.

Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge.

I’m trying not to lose my head.

It’s like a jungle sometimes.

The House of Commons rose on Thursday 20 July 2023, and only then did we have a spate of DLUHC announcements from the following Monday onwards.

This blog post simply aims to keep track of it all. For the actual analysis, you will need to tune into two Clubhouse sessions (Clubhouse! It’s a bit like when people talk about “old-school hip hop” – nod appreciatively, high five, lockdown vibes, those were the days were they not?):

– 5 pm, 2 August – Gove’s “long-term plan” – RSVP here

– 5 pm, 3 August – plans, GPDO, fees – RSVP here

I’ll be joined by my rock steady crew: Sam Stafford (HBF), the eponymous Catriona Riddell, Landmark’s summer signing Hashi Mohamed, Annie Gingell (Tetlow King), Claire Petricca-Riding and Nicola Gooch (Irwin Mitchell), my Town Legal partner Victoria McKeegan and also perhaps by you?

We’ll discuss:

Michael Gove’s “long-term plan for housing” speech and press statement (24 July 2023), preceded by the same day by Rishi Sunak’s “PM to build 1 million new homes over this Parliament” announcement

A consultation paper on (more) changes to permitted development rights (24 July 2023)

A consultation paper on the implementation of plan-making reforms proposed in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill (25 July 2023)

The Government’s response to its consultation on increasing planning fees and performance (25 July 2023), following on from the draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (laid before Parliament on 20 July 2023)

(All the above are summarised in a Town Legal update, which also features an analysis of the Secretary of State’s recent M&S Oxford Street decision).

A consultation paper on operational reforms to the NSIP consenting process (26 July 2023)

Updates to the following sections of Planning Practice Guidance (both 26 July 2023):

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.

Simon Ricketts, 28 July 2023

Personal views, et cetera

Drop The Pilot: Community Land Auctions

Hey let’s get Joan Armatrading on the Walkman. We’re going back – way back…

The Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons over a year ago on 11 May 2022. It’s not just intervening political chaos which has caused this slow-moving caravan of disparate policy notions to lurch from side to side with occasional abrupt halts Along the way additional bright notions have been loaded onto it, impeding progress still further. 

One of those notions is the old chestnut of community land auctions. Clauses 127 to 137 were added to the Bill in November 2022 without prior consultation, once Michael Gove became Secretary of State, so as to allow community land auctions to be piloted for ten years. 

Many of you will remember economist Tim Leunig promoting the idea back in the early days of the Coalition Government. See for instance Tim Leunig’s blog post Housing is expensive in Britain. This is because we have built too few houses for the number of new households – land auctions will help give us the homes we need (LSE, 23 March 2011). In fact some of you may even have been at an event I hosted back then where we had a discussion around a swanky breakfast table at the firm I was then at, with property and planning people quizzing him as to how it would actually work. Leunig is now Gove’s senior policy advisor at DLUHC. 

CLAs are of course catnip to many political types and economists, for instance supported by Policy Exchange (see eg Alex Morton’s 2013 paper A Right To Build) and the YIMBY Alliance, as part of the wider thinking on land value capture (see eg my 20 May 2017 blog post Money For Nothing? CPO Compensation Reform, Land Value Capture). My conclusion remains that the introduction of community land auctions would inevitably be harmful to the principled operation of the planning system – it’s just too darned complicated – and to the delivery of development in the right places – for instance it introduces a huge conflict of interest for the local planning authority as between whether to plan for the best places or the best returns. In my view primary legislation to allow for a pilot is premature. If there are excess unearned gains for the state (in addition to what is already extracted via the planning system), why not just openly tax them rather than embark on this three cup trick?

The current concept is set out in pages 125 to 133 of the Explanatory Notes to the Bill. 

Clause 127 (3) of the Bill:

“A “community land auction arrangement” means an arrangement provided for in CLA regulations under which—

(a) a local planning authority is to invite anyone who has a freehold or leasehold interest in land in the authority’s area to offer to grant a CLA option over the land, with a view to the land being allocated for development in the next local plan for the authority’s area,

(b) any CLA option granted under the arrangement ceases to have effect if the land subject to the option is not so allocated when that plan is adopted or approved (unless the option has already been exercised or been withdrawn or otherwise ceased to have effect), and

(c) the local planning authority may—

(i) exercise the CLA option and dispose of the interest in the land to a person who proposes to develop the land, 

(ii) exercise the CLA option with a view to developing the land itself, or

(iii) dispose of the CLA option to a person who proposes to exercise it and then develop the land.”

Clause 128: “Power to permit community land auction arrangements

(1) This section applies where—

(a) the Secretary of State directs that a local planning authority which is to prepare a local plan may put in place a community land auction arrangement in relation to that plan, 

(b) the local planning authority resolves to do so (and that resolution has not been rescinded), and

(c) the community land auction arrangement has not come to an end.

(2) The local plan may only allocate land in the authority’s area for development—

(a) if the land is subject to a CLA option or a CLA option has already been exercised in relation to it, or

(b) in circumstances which are prescribed by CLA regulations.

(3) Any financial benefit that the local planning authority has derived, or will or could derive, from a CLA option may be taken into account—

(a) in deciding whether to allocate land which is subject to the option, or in relation to which the option has been exercised, for development in the local plan;

(b) in deciding whether the local plan is sound in an examination under Part 2 of PCPA 2004.

(4) CLA regulations may make provision about how, or to what extent, any financial benefit may be taken into account under subsection (3) (including provision about how any financial benefit is to be weighed against any other considerations which may be relevant to whether the land should be allocated for development in the local plan or to whether the plan is sound).”

Receipts are to be used to support development in an area by funding infrastructure and paying for the administration of the community land auctions process. 

The provisions were debated in House of Lords Committee on 18 May 2023 (the relevant part of the debate starts from amendment 364B) and it might put some flesh on the bones to see how a Government minister, Earl Howe, explains how it is all intended to work:

“Community land auctions are an innovative process of identifying land for allocation for development in a local planning authority’s area in a way that seeks to optimise land value capture. Their aim is to introduce transparency and certainty by allowing local planning authorities to know the exact price at which a landowner is willing to sell their land. The crux of our approach is to encourage landowners to compete against each other to secure allocation of their land for development in the local plan by granting a legally binding option over their land to the local planning authority.

The competitive nature of community land auction arrangements incentivises landowners to reveal the true price at which they would willingly part with their land. If the land is allocated in the local plan upon its adoption, the local planning authority can sell the CLA option, keeping the amount that the successful bidder has paid and capturing the value that has accrued to the land as a result of the allocation. The successful bidder must then pay the price set out by the original landowner in the option agreement to purchase the land. The detailed design of community land auction arrangements will be set out in regulations that will be subject to the affirmative procedure.”

“…sustainable development remains at the heart of our approach. Piloting authorities will decide which land to allocate in their emerging local plans by considering a range of factors, which the Government will set out in guidance. Unlike conventional local plans, when allocating sites, local planning authorities will be able to consider the financial benefits that they are likely to accrue from each site. How, and the extent to which, financial benefits may be taken into account will be determined in regulations. Importantly, the existing requirement to prepare local plans, with the objective of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development under Section 39 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, will remain.

We are not altering the existing local plan consultation and examination process. Piloting authorities will still be required to consult on the proposed land allocations in their draft local plans, before they are submitted and independently examined in public in accordance with the local plan preparation procedures, as modified by Schedule 7 to the Bill.

… the Secretary of State is required to lay a report before each House of Parliament on the effectiveness of the pilot within the timeframe set out in Clause 134(2). There is a requirement to publish this report, which means that it will be publicly accessible and available to any combined authority that was involved in the pilot.

The noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, asked about whether there had been prior consultations. We will consult on community land auctions shortly, and taking part in the pilot will be voluntary for local authorities. We need the powers in the Bill to enable the pilot to happen.

I appreciate the thought behind my noble friend’s Amendment 366. However, as community land auctions are a new and innovative process for identifying land for allocation for development, our view is that it is right that the Bill makes provision for them to be piloted on a strictly time-limited basis.

If community land auction arrangements are deemed successful, and if there is ambition to extend the approach, further primary legislation would be required to implement them on a permanent basis. As we do not have the evidence about their effectiveness yet, we think it right that the Bill does not include provisions that could make CLAs a permanent fixture. Instead, the Government will take a decision at the relevant point in the future, based on the evidence.”

“The simplest way I can describe this is that community land auctions will be a process of price discovery. In the current system, local planning authorities have to make assumptions about the premium required by a reasonable landowner to release their land for development. For Section 106 agreements, this manifests itself through viability negotiations between the local planning authority and a developer. As these can be negotiated, there is a higher risk that, in effect, higher land prices lead to reduced developer contributions, rather than contributions being fully priced by developers into the amount that they pay for land.

For the community infrastructure levy and the proposed infrastructure levy, a levy rate is set for all development within certain parameters. When setting rates, the local planning authority has to calculate how much value uplift will occur on average, and has to make assumptions about landowner premiums and set a levy rate on that basis. The actual premium required by individual landowners will not be available to local planning authorities and will vary depending on individual circumstances. If the local planning authority makes an inaccurate assumption about landowner premiums, they may either make a lot of sites unviable by setting too high a levy rate, or else they will collect much less than they might have done otherwise by setting too low a levy rate.

Under the CLA process, landowners bid to have their land selected for allocation in an emerging local plan, as I have described, by stating the price at which they would willingly sell their land to the LPA for development. The offer from the landowner, once an option agreement is in place with the LPA, becomes legally binding. The LPA can either exercise it themselves, thereby purchasing the land, or auction it to developers. The competitive nature of CLAs incentivises landowners to reveal the true price at which they would willingly part with their land. If they choose to offer a higher price, they risk another piece of land being allocated for development, in which case they will not secure any value uplift at all.”

But if you’re regularly involved in local plan making and/or the promotion of land for development, obvious points arise, none of which are addressed in the above – or anywhere as far as I can see:

  • the nature, terms and timing of these “options”. They would need to be investment-grade binding commitments on the owner (or owners – many potential allocations are a patchwork of interests knotted together by land promoters) and the owner’s successors in title, with all those with relevant interests (eg mortgagees, tenants) having consented, legally binding for a very long period of time, until drawdown which would be way past local plan adoption, with no get out if any owner changes its plans.
  • The above means heavy-duty conveyancing input on the part of the owner but also on the part of the local authority, all within the necessary local plan preparation window. Given the number of sites proposed in any local authority’s “call for sites” this is a truly massive amount of work to be resourced by the authority, even with terms as standardised as possible.
  • The proposed option price by the land owner is going to be influenced by whether best values are to be achieved (1) blind via this route, (2) by in some way bringing forward a scheme outside the process (if this is ruled out the system is utter nationalisation and state control of development – if that’s what you voted for, fine, but I suspect it’s not) or (3), as has happened with other forms of development land tax, by just waiting it out for a less restrictive regime. 
  • Say two pieces of land are put forward as alternative locations for the expansion of a town, one less sustainable than the other (eg it may be greenfield rather than brownfield, remote from public transport connections). The owner of the less sustainable site may offer to make its land available for a lower price. To what extent can or should the authority take into account the additional monies to be extracted from on-sale of the less sustainable site in deciding which to allocate? My early years as a planning lawyer were in the out of town supermarket wars, where the common situation was the local authority seeking to promote a supermarket on its own, worse, site in opposition to better proposals by others, for obvious reasons that at the time of course had to remain unspoken because having regard to the authority’s potential financial returns was obviously verboten. Just think how this would play out under what is proposed – and with much of the decision making inevitably taking place behind closed doors due to inevitable commercial confidentiality. 
  • How is commercial and mixed used development to be approached and dealt with in valuation terms? Is this how we are going to allocate land for major logistics or industry? It’s a cookie cutter approach as presented: housing, housing, housing. 
  • The local authority is envisaged to be the ring master and banker of the whole processes. Whilst this may be welcome in some ways, capacity building would be required on a huge scale. 
  • In any event, the current system already minimises land values, and will increasingly do that if relatively recent changes to the viability process are allowed to bed down. Every time development comes forward with less affordable housing than required by policy, that is because the authority, or inspector on appeal, has been satisfied, on the basis of valuation advice, that no more affordable housing could be extracted and the scheme still proceed, based on an appraisal that doesn’t feed in the price the developer may actually have paid for the land but, usually, just existing use value with a premium set at the minimum that the valuers agree would have been necessary to persuade the owner to sell. I would like to see an explanation of why the option price offered by a land owner would be likely to be lower than EUV+. 
  • Oh and there’s nothing “community” about it.

That’s just the outcome 15 minutes’ thought at the kitchen table on a Saturday morning with Joan Armatrading on in the background. 

Some people seem to think that the planning system can be used as a sandbox for trying out these over-complicated, theoretical constructs. I set out my brief thoughts on the infrastructure levy last week and see also the “no hope value” thinking. We’re barking up the wrong tree folks. Drop the pilot. We don’t have the time. Get the existing system to work, now, with more resources and less complexity, better guidance and – perish the thought – some political consistency. Use the local plans system for planning and the tax system for taxation rather than creating something which sounds more like a complicated board game. In my humble opinion. 

Simon Ricketts, 19 May 2023

Personal views, et cetera

The phrase to “drop the pilot” means to abandon a trustworthy adviser. This 1890 Punch cartoon depicts the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck from the Chancellorship of the German Empire by Wilhelm II. 

May Day, May Day – Labour’s Proposed Approach To Planning Reform

Brave timing, with local elections this week, but it is helpful finally to see some detail today as to Labour’s proposed approach to planning reform in today’s Times piece, Starmer’s growth plan is built on houses (The Times, 1 May 2023 – behind paywall):

“Labour will pledge to restore housebuilding targets and hand more power to local authorities; promise 70 per cent home ownership and hundreds of thousands of new council homes. Given the resistance of so many local authorities to development, that may sound like a contradiction in terms. But I’m told a Starmer government would wield both carrot and stick: councils would be made to work together to come up with plans for development at a regional level, spreading a burden few want to shoulder individually, with cash and infrastructure as the prize for new housing. (Bafflingly, they are under no obligation to work together now.) If proposed developments meet the standards set out in those local plans, they will be approved. So no longer would each town hall have to agree to what one senior Labour source calls “shitty speculative developments” to meet targets arbitrarily imposed upon them. But nor will they be allowed to opt out of building either.

Starmer’s government would also look anew at the green belt, swathes of which — including a petrol station in Tottenham Hale, north London — are neither green nor pleasant. Those sites would be liberated. Not all politics is local, however. We can also expect to hear more about national projects, driven from the centre too: intensive development on the 50-mile Oxford-Cambridge Arc and a generation of new towns are all under discussion as Starmer’s aides work up plans to be announced at Labour conference in September.”

See also:

Scrapping housebuilding targets could cost tenants £200 a year by 2030 – Labour (The Observer, 30 April 2023)

Keir Starmer: ‘I want Labour to be the party of home ownership’  (Guardian, 29 April 2023)

Obviously, more detail is needed and some policy nuances are lost in this summary – for instance:

  • We still do have targets, it’s just that they will become even more of an advisory starting point than at present.
  • We still have the duty to cooperate, indeed it seems from a Planning Resource story this week it seems that there may even be a re-think as to its replacement, in relation to housing numbers as opposed to infrastructure and nature strategies, by some vague alignment approach. 

But, really, contrast even this thumbnail sketch of Labour thinking with new housing and planning minister’s Rachel Mcclean’s rather defensive and dare I say it unimpressive appearance before Select Committee  this week. Much unsubstantiated assertion, much “we’ll come back to you on that”. NB Advice to any politician, never question Lichfields’ research – you won’t win! 

See for example:

Minister denies planning reforms will stymie homes growth (Housing Today, 25 April 2023)

A full transcript of her appearance is here.

Turn away if you feel uncomfortable about use of the B word, but… 

I was as unconvinced by her explaining away the current wave of local planning authorities which have paused local plan production as I was later in the week during her appearance on BBC’s Question Time when she became animated in response to someone who asserted that Brexit was one of the causes for this country’s current poor economic performance. 

Recognise the issues, own them!

On reflection, perhaps Labour’s unveiling of its approach to housing and planning has come at precisely the right time (although I won’t let that party off the hook on Brexit either…)

Simon Ricketts, 1 May 2023

Personal views, et cetera

It’s Been A Good Year For The ROSEs (& Bloggers Etc)

A tumultuous year ends. Authority after authority in the south east, or the Rest of the South East, as we used to call it before regional planning so as to exclude London, is pausing or going slow with its local plan, given the signals from Government that authorities will soon find it easier to decide not to plan to meet their local housing needs. (It’s not just in the south east I know but I desperately needed to make the Elvis Costello pun work).

In terms of policy, nothing yet has changed at all. But the excuses are already being found.

Planning Resource for instance reported on 19 December 2022 that:

  • Horsham District Council has delayed its cabinet meeting to consider its proposed Regulation 19 consultation draft plan from 15 December 2022.
  • Mole Valley District Council has paused preparation of its new local plan/
  • The Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Councils have announced an 11 month delay to the preparation of their emerging joint local plan

And this was before Michael Gove’s 22 December 2022 announcements as to proposed reforms to national planning policy that I blogged about that day (and which we will be discussing on clubhouse at 4 pm, 4 January – tune in to blow those cobwebs away! Join via this link – do RSVP in the link and get it in your diaries).

Someone please post some stats, I can’t immediately find them in my post-Christmas haze, but these delays have of course been building up over the year. Back on 2 September 2022 Planning Resource was reporting on the 19 authorities that have withdrawn or delayed local plans in the past year . Before that on 26 April 2022 Lichfields were reporting on 11 authorities that had either stalled, delayed or withdrawn their local plans. Go back even further to my 12 February 2022 blog post, Local Plan Breaking.

No doubt we will see over the course of 2023 how all this plays out in the light of the two successive waves of changes to the NPPF that we have now been told to expect.

It’s also been a good year for the bloggers and podcasters. Shout outs to Zack the Planorak, Nicola the Gooch, Sam 50 Shades Stafford, Raj Compulsory Reading Gupta and to my colleagues responsible for the Planning Law (With Chickens) podcasts (Victoria McKeegan, Nikita Sellers and Meeta Kaur). You all keep me on my toes and occasionally wondering what I have to add. But in any event thank you everyone for continuing to read and engage – sitting down every week for an hour or two to do these notes to self remains the only way I can hope to keep track for myself of what is happening and for people to find this occasionally useful or entertaining is always an unexpected bonus..

These were my most-read posts of 2022:

  1. New NE Nutrient Neutrality & Recreational Impact Restrictions (+ DEFRA Nature Recovery Green Paper) (18 March 2022)
  2. Running Down That Hillside (2 November 2022)
  3. EZ Does It: Charter Cities, Freeports, Development Corporations (30 July 2022)
  4. Local Plan Breaking (12 February 2022)
  5. It Will Soon Be Christmas & We Really Don’t Have To Rush To Conclusions On This New NPPF Consultation Draft (22 December 2022)

Looking back, these were the posts that pretty much wrote themselves in reaction to what was happening all around us: the neutralities issues, the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hillside, the bizarre happenings within that brief Truss premiership, the local plan making crisis and of course the Government’s planning reform agenda. In fact, at the foot of this post there is a table of month by month views of the blog since it started in June 2016. Views have been dependent not on any writing quality but on subject matter (oh, and the lockdowns certainly helped).

I’m sure there will be plenty of planning law to write about next year, all of it as yet unplanned.

Healthy new year all. And in the wise words of Elvis Costello: Get Happy.

Simon Ricketts. 31 December 2022

Personal views, et cetera

Prospective Prospectus

My 6 December 2022 blog post Gove Gives: Local Housing Need Now Just “Advisory” summarised the contents of his written ministerial statement that day which promised a “National Planning Policy Framework prospectus, which will be put out for consultation by Christmas”.

I mentioned in the blog post a letter which he had written to all MPs the previous day which had gone into more detail that the statement. I hadn’t included a link to the letter. It is here. What is even more interesting is that there is another letter, of the same date, written just to Conservative MPs. The link to that one is here.

The introduction to the letter to Conservative MPs makes the intended policy direction very clear. For instance:

“Whatever we do at a national level, politics is always local and there is no area that demonstrates this more than planning. Through reforms made by Conservative-led governments since 2010, we have a locally-led planning system – for instance, by scrapping policies like top-down regional targets that built nothing but resentment – and introducing neighbourhood planning. These reforms have delivered a record of which Conservatives can be proud. I also do not need to remind you that under the last Labour government, housebuilding reached its lowest rate since the 1920s.

But there is much more to do to ensure we can build enough of the right homes in the right places with the right infrastructure, and to ensure that local representatives can decide where – and where not – to place new development. As Conservatives, we recognise both the fundamental importance of home ownership and that we can only deliver the homes we need if we bring the communities we represent with us. These are the promises on which we stood in our manifesto and ones that I and the Prime Minister are determined to deliver.

I am therefore writing to set out the further changes I will be making to the planning system, alongside the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which address many colleagues’ concerns. They will place local communities at the heart of the planning system.

As you know I share the views of many colleagues about the current system. That it does not provide the right homes in the right places, and at its worst risks imposing ever more stretching housing targets that are out of touch with reality – leading to developers taking advantage through planning by appeal and speculative development. Communities feel that they are under siege, and I am clear that this approach will never be right or sustainable if we want to build the homes that our communities want and need.”

This Government weaves around planning reform like Kylian Mbappe. First the 2020 white paper, then the u-turn after the Chesham and Amersham by-election, then the Kwarteng “growth growth growth” plan – and now placing house-building delivery firmly in the hands of “communities” – in reality, at root, existing home owners – with a weakened process for local plan examination:

“I will ensure that plans no longer have to be ‘justified’, meaning that there will be a lower bar for assessment, and authorities will no longer have to provide disproportionate amounts of evidence to argue their case.”

Is all of this just another feint, a shimmy past the Tory rebel MPs to ensure that planning reform can actually progress? Or genuine capitulation – genuflection to the election pamphlet needs of political colleagues? Zack Simons doesn’t mince his words in his 8 December 2022 blog post Notes on reform: the Government gives up – essential reading.

The matters to be consulted upon in the forthcoming prospectus are numerous. Steve Quartermain and I were counting them this week and ran out of fingers – the letters include commitments to consultation as to at least the following matters:

  • Changes to the method for calculating local housing need figures
  • Dropping the requirement for a 20% buffer to be added to housing land supply numbers for both plan making and decision taking
  • What should be within the scope of the new National Development Management Policies
  • Each new National Development Management Policy before it is brought forward
  • Detailed proposals for increases in planning fees
  • A New planning performance framework that will monitor local performance across a broader set of measures of planning service delivery, including planning enforcement
  • Further measures (i) allowing local planning authorities to refuse planning applications from developers who have built out slowly in the past and (ii) making sure that local authorities who permission land are not punished under the housing delivery test when it is developers who are not building
  • A new approach to accelerating the speed at which permissions are built out, specifically on a new financial penalty
  • How to address the issue of the planning system being “undermined by irresponsible developers and landowners who persistently ignore planning rules and fail to deliver their commitments to the community”.
  • Amending national policy to support development on small sites, particularly with respect to affordable housing
  • Further measures that would prioritise the use of brownfield land
  • Details of how a discretionary registration scheme for short term lets in England would be administered
  • Reviewing the Use Classes Order so that it “enables places such as Devon, Cornwall and the Lake District to better control changes of use to short term lets if they wish“.

There is a lot to take in here – both what is written and what is between the lines. To try to help make sense of the prospectus when it lands, there will be a special Planning Law Unplanned clubhouse discussion at 4pm on 4 January 2023 featuring various planners and planning lawyers, including myself, Zack, Steve and many more. Join the event via this link – do RSVP in the link and get it in your diaries.

Simon Ricketts, 10 December 2022

Personal views, et cetera

Gove Gives: Local Housing Need Now Just “Advisory”

A deal has been reached between the Government and those rebel MPs who had threatened to derail the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill. And so we have Michael Gove’s written statement to the House of Commons today 6 December 2022, in the wake of a letter written to all MPs on 5 December 2022 and a 5 December 2022 press statement. Of course, when we talk about the Bill, that is short-hand for the reform package as a whole, including most crucially the proposed amendments to the National Planning Policy Framework. 

Those proposed amendments are soon to be fleshed out in the National Planning Policy Framework prospectus, “which will be put out for consultation by Christmas” (i.e. by the time that the Commons rises on 20 December 2022). It is going to be thin gruel for those of us who believe that this country has a housing crisis and that part of the solution to that crisis is to build more homes, where they are most needed.  

I’ll just summarise here what the written ministerial statement covers. The letter to MPs goes into further detail.

There will be an amended method for calculating local housing need, which will be “advisory”. “It will be up to local authorities, working with their communities, to determine how many homes can actually be built, taking into account what should be protected in each area – be that our precious Green Belt or national parks, the character of an area, or heritage assets. It will also be up to them to increase the proportion of affordable housing if they wish.”

Of course it is not currently mandatory that local authorities plan for the level of local housing need arrived at via the current standard method, but there is a heavy onus on authorities to justify departures. 

Paragraph 35 of the current NPPF sets out the “soundness test”, including that plans are “positively prepared”, meaning that they are “providing a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet the area’s objectively assessed needs; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development.”

Paragraph 61 of the current NPPF says this:

“To determine the minimum number of homes needed, strategic policies should be informed by a local housing need assessment, conducted using the standard method in national planning guidance – unless exceptional circumstances justify an alternative approach which also reflects current and future demographic trends and market signals. In addition to the local housing need figure, any needs that cannot be met within neighbouring areas should also be taken into account in establishing the amount of housing to be planned for.”

It is plain that those circumstances are now to be widened, in ways which are more subjective, eg relying on perceived capacity constraints based on “the character of an area” (the letter to MPs gives the example of for instance “new blocks of high-rise flats which are entirely inappropriate in a low-rise neighbourhood” and talks of the need for “gentle densities”).  It will be open season for authorities and/or local campaigners to press the case for lower numbers to be adopted and/or for the required proportion of affordable housing to be set at such a financially onerous level that in practice chokes off the prospect of development. The proposed abolition of the duty to cooperate and its replacement by an “alignment” mechanism yet to be articulated just increases the plain jeopardy here. Open question: how will the Government be able to hold to its 300,000 homes a year target if significant numbers of authorities adjust their numbers downwards? Another open question: how important is mitigating the housing crisis to the Government versus fending off internal rebellions and having constituency-friendly developer-phobic policies?

Five year housing land supply requirement:

“We will end the obligation on local authorities to maintain a rolling five-year supply of land for housing where their plans are up-to-date. Therefore for authorities with a local plan, or where authorities are benefitting from transitional arrangements, the presumption in favour of sustainable development and the ‘tilted balance’ will typically not apply in relation to issues affecting land supply.

I also want to consult on dropping the requirement for a 20% buffer to be added for both plan making and decision making – which otherwise effectively means that local authorities need to identify six years of supply rather than five. In addition, I want to recognise that some areas have historically overdelivered on housing – but they are not rewarded for this. My plan will therefore allow local planning authorities to take this into account when preparing a new local plan, lowering the number of houses they need to plan for.”

“…Where authorities are well-advanced in producing a new plan, but the constraints which I have outlined mean that the amount of land to be released needs to be reassessed, I will give those places a two year period to revise their plan against the changes we propose and to get it adopted. And while they are doing this, we will also make sure that these places are less at risk from speculative development, by reducing the amount of land which they need to show is available on a rolling basis (from the current five years to four).”

“I will increase community protections afforded by a neighbourhood plan against developer appeals – increasing those protections from two years to five years…”

Ensuring timely build out:

“I already have a significant package of measures in the Bill to ensure developers build out the developments for which they already have planning. I will consult on two further measures:

i) on allowing local planning authorities to refuse planning applications from developers who have built slowly in the past; and

ii) on making sure that local authorities who permission land are not punished under the housing delivery test when it is developers who are not building.

I will also consult on our new approach to accelerating the speed at which permissions are built out, specifically on a new financial penalty.”

Character of a developer:

“I have heard and seen examples of how the planning system is undermined by irresponsible developers and landowners who persistently ignore planning rules and fail to deliver their legal commitments to the community. I therefore propose to consult on the best way of addressing this issue, including looking at a similar approach to tackling the slow build out of permissions, where we will give local authorities the power to stop developers getting permissions.”

Brownfield first:

“I will consult to see what more we can do in national policy to support development on small sites particularly with respect to affordable housing and I will launch a review into identifying further measures that would prioritise the use of brownfield land. To help make the most of empty premises, including those above shops, I am reducing the period after which a council tax premium can be charged so that we can make the most of the space we already have. I will also provide further protection in national policy for our important agricultural land for food production, making it harder for developers to build on it.”

Tourist accommodation/short-term lets

“I intend to deliver a new tourist accommodation registration scheme as quickly as possible, working with DCMS, starting with a further short consultation on the exact design of the scheme. I will also consult on going further still and reviewing the Use Classes Order so that it enables places such as Devon, Cornwall, and the Lake District to control changes of use to short term lets if they wish.”

More anon. 

Simon Ricketts, 6 December 2022

Personal views, et cetera