HCLG Committee ‘Unpersuaded’ That Planning Reforms Will Make System Quicker

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee has published its first report on the future of the planning system in England. The report expressed concern over “the lack of detail” in the government’s vision for a new zonal planning system in England, which included proposals to split the planning system into three categories of development zones (growth, renewal and protected) and replacing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) with a single Infrastructure Levy. Read more on the Rural Services Network website.

https://www.rsnonline.org.uk/hclg-committee-unpersuaded-that-government-planning-reforms-will-make-system-quicker 

The government is facing a backlash from local councillors – including more than 350 Conservatives –over its proposals to shake up the planning system. More than 2,000 councillors from across England have signed an open letter to the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, calling on him to rethink the plans. Ministers want to overhaul the planning system, which they say is necessary to boost the building of high-quality, sustainable homes, by streamlining the process, cutting red tape and harnessing technology. Councillors have said the plans will undermine local democracy by removing the public’s right to be heard in person at local plan examinations and taking away development decisions from elected planning committees. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/10/backlash-government-overhaul-planning-system-tory-england 

Housebuilders Want ‘Broken Planning System’ Fixed

One in three housebuilders want the ‘broken’ planning system fixed to boost construction activity, says the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) in response to the government’s consultation on the Planning White Paper. The FMB asked SME housebuilders what was the one thing that the government could do to help them reach pre-coronavirus levels of activity and one in three singled out reform of the planning system. This figure emerges against a background of a marked decline in the number of small housebuilders. In the 1980s 40% of all new homes were built by SME housebuilders but that figure has now plunged to just 12%. Read more on the pbctoday website.

https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/planning-construction-news/planning-white-paper/84603/

Legal Challenge Over New Permitted Development Rules

A campaign group has launched a judicial review challenge to the Government’s new rules on permitted development, which the Prime Minister’s Office at the time of their launch described as “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War". On 21 August Rights : Community : Action (RCA) issued a pre-action letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. It challenges the lawfulness of several statutory instruments. RCA claimed that the new rules had been brought in without proper consultation and without parliamentary debate. Read more on the Local Government Lawyer website.

https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/planning/401-planning-news/44693-government-hit-by-legal-challenge-over-new-permitted-development-rules

Housing Secretary Announces Proposals To Change Planning

The Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick MP, yesterday announced a package of measures to reform the planning system and encourage house building. He also confirmed the Government intends to bring forward the Renters Reform Bill (encompassing the abolition of section 21, ‘lifetime deposits’, and the extension of the rogue landlords database) this year, as well as a social housing white paper. The Government plans to publish a ‘white paper’ in the spring, setting out their ambitions for reform of the planning system. Read more on the NLA website.

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/housing-secretary-announces-proposals-change-planning

Budget 2020: Housing Measures At A Glance

·         A new Affordable Homes Programme of £12bn

·         A £1bn Building Safety Fund to remove unsafe cladding from buildings

·         £650m of funding to help rough sleepers into permanent accommodation

·         £400m for ambitious regional mayors to build homes on brownfield sites

·         Promise to announce measures to change the planning system tomorrow

·         A 1% cut on the Public Works Loan Board interest rate, used by local authorities to fund housebuilding

·         A temporary removal of the minimum income floor (which calculates assumed earnings for self-employed people) in Universal Credit as part of the government’s response to coronavirus

·         £200m for communities in areas that repeatedly flood

Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/budget-2020-the-housing-bits-of-sunaks-speech-in-full-65395?utm_source=Ocean%20Media%20Group&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11390639_IH-BUDGET-SPECIAL-11-3-2020-GR&dm_i=1HH2,6S52N,8CKJV9,R4PA8,1

Jenrick Says More Than 300,000 Homes ‘May Be Needed’

New housing minister Robert Jenrick has re-committed the government to building 300,000 homes a year and suggested the number might even need to be revised upwards. In a speech outlining major reforms to the planning system he said: “Our 300,000 target by the mid-2020s may not be ambitious enough. “To do this we have to embrace technology, the technology being brought forward for the digital age to make homes built faster. But we also have to renew our enthusiasm for transforming quality design in the supply of homes so we can build a greener and a better Britain,” he told an event hosted by Policy Exchange and Create Streets. Read more on the Housing Today website.

https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/jenrick-says-more-than-300000-homes-may-be-needed/5102340.article

Young People And Renters ‘Shut Out’ Of The Planning System

Planning needs “new forms of decision making”, with the present system often dominated by those less supportive of new homes in their local area, a new report reveals. People Powered Planning, published by Demos and funded by Nationwide Building Society, finds that a minority of homeowners (42%) support new homes, compared to a majority of renters (60%). However, the majority of homeowners (56%) have engaged with the planning system, compared to a minority of renters (29%). Download the report from the Demos website.

https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/People-Powered-Planning.pdf

Planning System Drives Up House Prices In Expensive Areas, Says Report

High house prices in expensive cities have been caused by the planning system’s rationing of new homes in areas of high demand, according to a report out on 11 June. It suggests the planning system should be reformed to introduce the flexible zoning system used in Japan and some parts of America. In its report, Think Tank Centre for Cities explores the relationship between urban economies and housing wealth in England and Wales. The organisation finds that the “restrictive planning system” has made urban homeowners in the greater South East more than £80,000 richer over the past six years than those in other parts of England and Wales. Read more on the Planning Portal.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/news/article/640/planning_news_-_13_june_2019?utm_source=PPQ+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3034f4b39f-Newsletter_18042019_HTML_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_734e0b63a9-3034f4b39f-7266185#two

Government Housing Delivery Plan 'Flawed'

The government's housing planning system is unable to demonstrate it is meeting housing demand effectively, public spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has said. The government wants 300,000 new homes a year from the mid-2020s onwards. The MHCLG has a standard method, developed in 2017, for local authorities to assess the number of new homes needed. The NAO says this has weaknesses. It says these weaknesses will result in a cut in the number of planned new homes in five of nine regions, while in London, the method will mean that new builds need to double in order to meet what the department thinks is needed. Read more on the BBC website.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47157413

Planning For The Right Homes In The Right Places - Consultation

This consultation sets out a number of proposals to reform the planning system to increase the supply of new homes and increase local authority capacity to manage growth. Proposals include:

·         a standard method for calculating local authorities’ housing need

·         how neighbourhood planning groups can have greater certainty on the level of housing need to plan for

·         a statement of common ground to improve how local authorities work together to meet housing and other needs across boundaries

·         making the use of viability assessments simpler, quicker and more transparent

·         increased planning application fees in those areas where local planning authorities are delivering the homes their communities need

Download the consultation from the GovUK website.

No End In Sight For Britain's Housing Crisis

The Government's attempts to fix Britain's housing crisis are "insufficient" and a shortage of homes will pump up prices for years to come, the European Commission has warned. While "progress" had been made to address the shortage, the EC said the UK's "lengthy, uncertain, complex and costly" planning system would drive a "continued mismatch between supply and demand". This would "place sustained upward pressure on house prices," it said. Targets to sell public land, a relaxation of the planning system to support development and "adopting a number of initiatives" to help meet a target for 1 million homes to be built by 2020 were welcomed. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Affordable Housing Squeezed By Land Values

The planning system has allowed soaring land values in London to reduce the amount of affordable housing delivered, research commissioned by London boroughs claims. Research reveals that since April 2009, although average London house prices have nearly doubled from £245,000 to £472,000, annual affordable housing delivery has dropped by 37%. The research, commissioned by a group of 13 Labour-led authorities and published on Friday, centres on the negotiations that take place between developers and local authorities when negotiating Section 106 agreements, which involves an examination of a scheme’s viability. The academics who produced the report recommended a “complete rethink” of the viability testing process in planning as a result. Read more on Inside Housing.

Housebuilders Optimistic Despite Market Uncertainty And Skills Shortage

Despite challenges including the current planning system, a skills shortage and uncertainty over Brexit, housebuilders are forecasting increased growth and investment in the sector. The Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking report finds optimism about the future for housebuilding has picked up slightly from 7.1 last year to 7.2 in 2016 – with 10 representing the highest level of expectation. The report is the first in-depth study of the sector following the Brexit vote in June.  Although over a third of firms (36%) said the uncertainty following the referendum result is the biggest challenge to their business, the industry is relatively optimistic; planning to grow, invest and create jobs. This outlook has given the industry the confidence to invest, with average five-year investment plans up 17% year on year. Read more on 24housing.

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.

Councils Are Granting Enough Planning Permissions – So Why Aren't We Building Housing?

One of the housing objectives of David Cameron’s government was to increase the amount of land that was permissioned for residential development. The number of units given planning permission in England increased from 176,209 in 2011 to 261,644 in 2015. The planning system is now yielding enough permissions to meet the roughly 250,000 new homes many housing economists think we need to keep up with household growth. This doesn’t mean that they are all in a position to be built out the very next day. But the number of plots approved for residential development in a given year has increased, by 48 per cent between 2011 and 2015. However, starts have risen over the same period by just 26 per cent, from 110,820 in 2011 to only 139,680 in 2015. Read more on the City Metric website.

Housing and Planning Bill Receives Royal Assent

New measures to help more people buy their own home and get houses built faster has become law as the Housing and Planning Act received Royal Assent. The Act sets out a clear determination from the government to keep the country building while giving hard working families every opportunity to unlock the door to home ownership. It will give housebuilders and decision-makers the tools and confidence to provide more homes and further streamline the planning system to accelerate their delivery. Rad more on the Gov UK website.

Housing Headlines From Budget 2016

1.       the launch of a Starter Homes Land Fund Prospectus, which will provide local authorities with £1.2bn of funding to make existing brownfield sites fit for housing;

2.       the acceleration of affordable home building via the bringing forward of £250m of capital spending to the 2017-18 and 2018-19;

3.       a streamlined planning system designed to minimise the delays that can hinder the planning process.

4.       releasing public sector land for house building purposes, including a specific partnership between the HCA and Network Rail to provide land surrounding railway stations.

5.       a commitment to legislation making it easier for local authorities to collaborate in the creation of new garden settlements.

6.       the reform of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on non-residential property transactions

Read more on the Forbes Solicitors website.

Report Warns Of Bleak Future For Ageing Without Better Housing And Planning

The housing and planning system is failing to deal with an ageing society meaning people are likely to find themselves living in homes that do not meet their needs as they grow older, according to a report. Tomorrow’s World: The future of ageing in the UK presents a bleak future for ageing, but it doesn’t have to be this way. There are significant social and economic opportunities, but only if policymakers begin to plan better for the long term. Among its chief concerns, the report highlights:

·         The social care system is crumbling and health care is failing to incentivise the prevention of ill health

·         The housing and planning system is failing to respond to ageing resulting in people living in housing which does not meet their needs

·         Individuals are currently underestimating their life expectancy and risking running out of money in retirement.

Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Inquiry Launched Into Low-Cost Housing

A Westminster inquiry has been launched into the effectiveness of government policies aimed at delivering low cost housing. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has appealed for written evidence, including personal testimony, on measures to tackle the shortage of affordable homes to buy and rent. Policy areas to be examined include measures for increasing the supply of social housing and homes for affordable private rent. The committee will also look at the issue of supply, proposed changes to the planning system and the potential impact of a rent cap in the private sector. Read more on the Parliament website.