The District Councils’ Network (DCN) has responded to the Government’s proposed reform of the National Planning Policy Framework.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government today announced its response to a consultation into proposed changes to the NPPF as part of its goal of getting 1.5 million new homes built this parliament.

In response, Cllr Richard Wright, DCN’s planning spokesperson, said: 

“We passionately back the building of 1.5 million much-needed new houses. However, it’s essential that homes are built to meet the needs of local communities, rather than what offers developers the greatest profit.

“New developments should be high quality, built to stand the test of time and come with the infrastructure required by growing communities. They should also be genuinely affordable to local people and meet the size and accessibility requirements of local housing need.

“Local planning departments are part of the solution to deliver for our nation and the Government’s milestones, not the problem. District planning authorities already approve almost nine in 10 of the planning applications they receive.

“A focus on planning consents alone through a standardised method won’t ensure each community’s needs are met. Indeed, it could result in poorly-planned developments in locations with poor transport links and inadequate infrastructure that are beset in future by social isolation, and do little to ease the housing shortages experienced by local people.

“Currently over a million homes with planning consent have yet to be built out. In my own council over half of the homes we’ve approved over the past eight years have yet to be built. Urgent Government action is required to address the issues of stalled sites and land banking by developers. 

“Councils need to be empowered to ensure we’re actually delivering 1.5 million new homes rather than merely 1.5 million planning consents which do little to ease the housing crisis. We want to work with the Government to ensure our shared ambition to get Britain building becomes reality.” 

DCN has also responded to some of the specific aspects of the reforms.

Five-year land supply

The Government has proposed that each council should continue to designate a five-year supply of land for future development.

We believe this proposal, although well intentioned, could undermine existing Local Plans – the documents which councils produce to set out where future development should occur.  Councils are legally required to undertake lengthy consultations of their communities when drawing up their Local Plans. Since the Government is dramatically increasing most areas’ housing targets, many councils will be unable to set out a land supply for the next five years. We want a co-ordinated approach covering housing, economic growth and infrastructure delivery.

In response, Cllr Wright said:

“While we recognise the importance of forecasting housing supply, the practical effect of continuing the requirement to demonstrate a five-year land supply will be to undermine existing Local Plans.

“This will result in precisely the type of speculative development that the Government says it wishes to avoid. It will also damage local community confidence in the planning process, and make local people believe their views are not being heard.”

Planning fees

On the proposals to allow councils to determine their own level of planning fee to achieve full cost recovery, Cllr Wright added:

“We strongly support the proposals to allow councils to set their own fees to reflect the actual costs of the planning system, therefore reducing our financial pressures and protecting our essential local services. We have long called for this reform to ensure that we’re are no longer subsidising developers.” 

Grey belt

On the proposals to designate Green Belt land as ‘grey belt’, suitable for development, Cllr Wright said:

“We support a brownfield-first approach to development and welcome the assurance that strict rules will apply to release of any Green Belt land. Any decisions on where to release land must remain locally-led. Local people and local authorities are in the best position to judge which land is most suitable for development. 

“While we welcome the tighter definition of ‘grey belt’ we remain concerned about the potential for unrestricted new development in the Green Belt and urge the Government to look again at clearer safeguards for agricultural and horticultural land, which is important for food security.”

Section 106

The Government announced moves to unblock the delivery of section 106 affordable housing. Section 106 obligations require developers to make a contribution or concession that will make a development acceptable to the local community – for instance by providing affordable housing as part of a wider scheme.

DCN welcomes the creation of the service which could help councils and registered providers of social housing to purchase section 106 affordable homes which have gone unsold as a potential means of alleviating the housing crisis. We look forward to seeing more details of how this will work.

On build-out

Cllr Wright said:

“We are pleased that the Government has revived proposals to require developers to commit to a build-out trajectory upfront and to report against it.

“The devil is in the detail on this. Councils need to be given real teeth to hold developers account and to refuse to determine applications from developers with a track record of not delivering.”