Gove To Overhaul ‘Out Of Date’ Housing Need Formula

 Michael Gove has told MPs he is looking again at the way housing needs targets are calculated. The housing secretary said: “In making a calculation of housing need overall one of the things I wanted to do is to look at how the numbers are generated in the first place.” The way that housing need is calculated, which forms the basis of housing targets in local plans, has become a thorny issue for the government. The standard method delivers a figure for housing need upon which most local authorities base their local housing targets. It uses projected household growth figures, adjusted for areas with high house prices, with the increases in new homes for any local planning authority capped. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/gove-to-overhaul-out-of-date-housing-need-formula/5114613.article

Developers Yet To Seek Planning Permission For More Than A Million Homes

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 suggests. These are homes 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. Local plans are a set of planning policies drawn up by councils, which allocate the number of homes to be built in local areas in consultation with local communities. Read more on the LGA website.

https://www.local.gov.uk/developers-yet-seek-planning-permission-more-million-earmarked-homes-lga-research

Almost Half Of Adopted Local Plans Needed An Increase In Housing

Almost half of adopted Local Plans needed an increase in their housing requirement, new research reveals. Despite having six years to act, the same research shows a quarter of councils have still to submit a Local Plan. Latest research from national planning and development consultancy Lichfields,  Planned up and be counted: Local Plan-making since the NPPF 2012, reports that more than half of the plans adopted under the 2012 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will need to be reviewed within two years. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/almost-half-of-adopted-local-plans-needed-an-increase-in-housing/

More Than 2,000 Villages Overlooked For Affordable Homes

More than 2,000 villages are missing out on new affordable homes because they are classified as “unsuitable for growth” by the local planning process, new research reveals. The CLA analysed 70 Local Plans from the most rural local authorities to find 2,154 villages across England are judged to be unsustainable – meaning housing allocation, including the delivery of affordable homes in these communities, is either highly restricted or not permitted, further exacerbating the rural housing crisis. Read more on 24housing.

https://www.24housing.co.uk/news/more-than-2000-villages-overlooked-for-affordable-homes/

Planning For The Right Homes In The Right Places

The Government has launched its consultation Planning for the right homes in the right places. This builds on some of the proposals in the Housing White Paper and seeks views on changes to national planning policy to help local planning authorities and communities plan for and deliver the homes they need, including:

·         A standard method for calculating local housing need

·         Improving how authorities work together to meet housing need

·         How the new approach to calculating housing need can help authorities plan for the needs of particular groups

·         Proposals for improving the use of section 106 agreements

Download the consultation form the CLG website.

Better-Off Areas Asked To Build Up To 40% More Homes

Areas where house prices far outstrip what people earn would be asked to build up to 40% more homes than planned, under government proposals. MPs were told it would mean some areas in England "would deliver large numbers well beyond what communities previously agreed as part of their local plans". The communities secretary said a new formula for determining housing need was needed to address the nation's housing crisis. But it is likely to face resistance from some local authorities. Read more on the BBC website.

Two-Thirds Of Councils Could Face Centrally Set Housing Targets

Failing to set up Local Plans could expose almost two-thirds of English councils to new government measures encouraging housing delivery. The report by planning and development consultancy Lichfields, entitled Planned and Deliver, found that only 36% of local authorities have completed Local Plans, while 43% have not yet published a draft. The government’s proposal is that if a council does not have a Local Plan in place by November, its targets for housing delivery will be set according to central estimates for household formation. Read more on Inside Housing.

HCA Chair: We Will Hammer Councils Which Fail To Deliver Targets

Local authorities which fail to deliver housing delivery targets set through standard measures will get “caned”, the Homes and Communities Agency chair has warned.  Sir Edward Lister suggested that the Local Plans shake-ups in the Housing White Paper were the “most important” factor in the government achieving its target of building a million homes by 2020. He said: “It is about Local Plans and about five-year housing supply being identified sensibly and properly. And there’s all sorts of stuff in the White Paper about that and having to have a five-year housing supply and a Local Plan and if you don’t you’re going to get caned.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Government To Tweak Planning Laws To Solve Housing Crisis

The Government is to outline a series of tweaks to planning laws it says will help solve the housing shortage. Ministers want to require councils to come with a local plan to meet housing demand in an area, give them more powers to speed up developments, and require developers to use land more efficiently. Crucially, the Government’s long awaited housing white paper includes measures that would effectively scrap the Coalition 2010 housebuilding planning framework and return to a system that bears stronger similarities to the one they inherited from Labour in 2010.  Read more on the Independent website.

Communities With Neighbourhood Plans Can Block Development

Communities with a Neighbourhood Plan will be able to block housing developments even if their local council does not have an up-to-date five-year housing land supply, the housing minister has announced. In a written statement this week, Gavin Barwell said communities with a Neighbourhood Plan are “often frustrated” that their plan is “undermined” when a local council does not have an up-to-date five-year housing land supply. Under current planning rules permission should be granted for housing developments, even if they conflict with a council’s Local Plan, if the council does not have an up-to-date five-year housing land supply. Permission should only be rejected if the negatives of a development significantly outweigh the positives. Read the full statement on the Parliament website.

Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of powers available to community groups to appeal against housing development targets drawn up by local authorities.

Gavin Barwell: Local authority housing targets must be based on an objectively assessed evidence of need and the capacity to meet that need. There are opportunities for community groups and local residents to raise their concerns about proposed housing targets through public consultation on an emerging Local Plan, and again at the independent examination which must be undertaken before the Local Plan can be adopted

Housing Minister Says He 'Won’t Hesitate To Take Action' Over Planning

New powers allowing the government to force local authorities and county councils to work together and develop local plans is one of three new amendments that have been introduced to the Neighbourhood Planning Bill. The other two amendments confirm that there would be a statutory duty to have a local plan in place and would enable the government to digitise local plans to make them easier for the public to access. Housing minister Gavin Barwell said the amendments were an attempt to take the “confrontation” out of the planning system. Read more on the Construction News website.

Barwell Blocks Council's Local Plan

Gavin Barwell has forced Bradford Council to pause its Local Plan because the council wants to build 11,000 homes on green belt land. The Labour-run council was due to send the Local Plan to the executive for final approval but this was postponed after housing minister Gavin Barwell issued a holding direction. Mr Barwell’s intervention came after he was lobbied by local Conservative MP Philip Davies to stop the Local Plan’s adoption because the council’s plan includes building 11,000 homes on green belt land by 2030. A council spokesperson said building on the green belt is necessary because of the “scale of building land required”. Read more on Inside Housing.

Ministers Press Ahead With Neighbourhood Planning Changes

The government is pressing ahead with several reforms aimed at speeding up and simplifying the neighbourhood planning process. The CLG has published a consultation response confirming it is proceeding with measures to make it easier “for residents and business to come together to produce a neighbourhood plan”. The Localism Act 2011 grants communities a right to shape development in their areas by producing a Neighbourhood Plan, which becomes part of the local planning authority’s Local Plan, setting out housing priorities. Under the changes councils must designate all of the neighbourhood area applied for by parish councils as soon as possible, replacing the current requirement to consider an application within eight weeks. Download the consultation response from the GovUK website.

£1.5bn Of New Homes Bonus Cash Allocated

The government has announced New Homes Bonus grant allocations worth a total of £1.5bn for 2016/17. The CLG has revealed the amount of bonus each English local authority will receive. The New Homes Bonus currently rewards councils with a payment equivalent to six years’ council tax for each additional new home they add to their housing stock. The allocations are set to be the last based on six years of council tax. The government has proposed reducing this to four years from 2017/18. It has also suggested changing the scheme so that payments are reduced if planning permission for new homes is granted on appeal and that councils without a Local Plan do not receive any bonus. Find details of the allocations on the CLG website.

England’s Population Is Moving To The South

England’s population is shifting further south, according to the latest official population projections. The overall population is growing fast, and growing almost everywhere – but the growth is disproportionately in London and the South East. The Office for National Statistics “Sub-national Population Projections” (SNPP) are the first local breakdown of the official 2014 projection for England’s growth. Today’s new figures – and the household projections that will later be based on them – are hugely important for planning. They frame the debate on where we need to build more homes, and will eventually feed through to the housing targets set in local plans. The last breakdown, two years ago, projected growth almost everywhere, but disproportionately in the South East. These latest projections confirm this trend.  Read more on the City Metric website.

Councils Hit Out At New Homes Bonus Changes

Councils have warned that proposed cuts and changes to the New Homes Bonus could make it more difficult for them to build new homes. Under consultation proposals published in December new payments to councils will be reduced from six to four years, payments will be reduced if planning permission for new homes is only granted on appeal and councils without a Local Plan would not receive any bonus. The New Homes Bonus currently rewards councils with a payment equivalent to six years’ council tax for each additional new home they add to their housing stock. Several councils warned the proposals could make it more difficult to increase house-building. Download the Consultation from the GovUK website.

New Homes Bonus Withheld If No Local Plan

The New Homes Bonus will be withheld from councils that do not have a Local Plan in place, under new government proposals. The CLG is consulting on changes to the New Homes Bonus, which include reducing payments from six to four years in order to cut costs and reducing payments to councils where planning permission was only granted on appeal. The bonus rewards local authorities for each additional new build and conversion using the national average council tax in each band. Long-term empty properties brought back into use are also included and there is a premium for affordable homes. The consultation states that councils have had “more than a decade” to produce Local Plans. Read more on Inside Housing.

Consultation On Proposed Changes To National Planning Policy

The government has issued a consultation paper on proposed changes to national planning policy including proposed changes to broaden the definition of affordable housing. It covers the following areas:

·         Broadening the definition of affordable housing to expand the definition of affordable housing for planning purposes to include a wider range of home ownership models including starter homes and other low cost home ownership models not held "in perpetuity";

·         Increasing the density of development around commuter hubs to make more efficient use of land in suitable locations;

·         Supporting sustainable new settlements, development on brownfield land and small sites, and delivery of housing numbers agreed in Local Plans;

·         Supporting delivery of starter homes

Find the consultation on the CLG website.

Neighbourhood Plans Boosting Housebuilding By 10%, Claims Minister

Neighbourhood Plans have led to a more than 10% increase in housebuilding plans, housing minister Brandon Lewis has claimed Speaking about the second reading of the Housing & Planning Bill, the Great Yarmouth MP said that the plans are part of a "huge shift" in power from Whitehall to local people, allowing them to decide on the future development of their area, including where new homes and business should be built, what they should look like and what local infrastructure is needed. So far, every one of more than 100 Neighbourhood Plans submitted to local referendums have been approved and around eight million people now live in places covered by neighbourhood planning. Once approved, councils are required to consider Neighbourhood Plans as part of the process for drawing up their Local Plan. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.