Planning reform:
Levelling up and Regeneration Bill at a glance Following on from the publication of the Housing White Paper in 2020, the UK Government has now set out its updated approach to planning reform through the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill. While this points to more of an evolution of the planning system, rather than the revolution suggested two years ago, there are still changes proposed that will fundamentally alter the way planning operates in the coming years.
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eforming England’s planning system was never going to be simple. It has been 73 years since the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act was enshrined into law, and since then the legal framework and supporting planning policies have been prodded and poked, altered and modified, and had new additions, with other parts taken away. The 2020 White Paper proposed a fresh start: a revolution to planning. Covid, Brexit, climate change, the cost-ofliving crisis and the need for votes then took over. As a result, the proposals delivered through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill are somewhat watered down, comprising a further set of amendments to the existing legal framework. While the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill has provided enough material for bedtime reading for the foreseeable (some 388 pages), we have focused our review on the proposed role of the five-year housing land supply and its impacts on the planning system moving forward.
Five-year housing land goodbye
Although criticised by the public, Councillors, environmental groups and even planning officers, it is fair to say that
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the need for Local Planning Authorities to maintain a five-year housing land supply has been a crucial element of the planning system during the lifetime of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and has driven the delivery of new homes across the country. The test, which in essence examines the number of homes to be built over the next five-year period, has enabled speculative development schemes, which conflict with the Development Plan, to advance as planning applications where Authorities cannot satisfy the test. The rationale is that the Development Plan is unlikely to deliver sufficient housing over the coming years, and thus to address this, sustainable non-allocated sites can be brought forward unless the impacts of the proposal significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefit provided by the new housing. Proposals advanced under such circumstances often have little public support; particularly where the adopted Plan would normally clearly rule out the development. It was once described to me by a resident at a consultation event for one of our schemes as a ‘loophole’ to enable development. It is, of course, not a loophole, but a tool to ensure housing
The 2020 White Paper proposed a fresh start: a revolution to planning. Covid, Brexit, climate change, the cost-of-living crisis and the need for votes then took over.” continues to be delivered to fight the housing crisis. Its benefit, unlike its relative the Housing Delivery Test, is seeking to remedy delivery issues before they occur. However, planning is political, and over the past decade the pro-development approach, and the approach to land supply and its impact on development has lost voter support. Balancing the increasingly vocal action groups against the Government’s commitment to deliver 300,000 dwellings per annum nationally has become increasingly difficult. So, as the UK government, how do you address this challenge? The Levelling up and Regeneration Bill proposes a partial revocation of the housing land supply ‘loophole’ provided a Local Planning Authority has an up-to-date Local Plan (less than five years old). The offer to Councils is: keep your local plan up to date,
