How are local planning authorities performing when it comes to up-to-date local plans and how many have identified sufficient land for future housing? Our latest analysis of the planning system in England cracks open a curate’s egg.

Local Plan delivery

Every local authority in England has now reached the point where it has an NPPF-compliant plan in at least the initial preparation stage, and local authorities are more actively pursuing the review process. In total, only 4 per cent of authorities have a Local Plan which is more than five years old and have not yet begun the review process – that’s down from 8 per cent in April 2021.

The fall in the number of plans either due for or under review indicates that the current system is working effectively. Local authorities are revisiting the strategic policies of their plans with success and in accordance with the NPPF; for housing requirements this means greater alignment with standard approach housing need figures.

Given this encouraging position, any proposed changes to policy around housing need should, therefore, proceed with caution, or risk upsetting a system that is beginning to operate with purpose.

Local Plan status

^{Source Savills Research, up to date as of November 2021}

Five-year land supply

Nearly a third of local authorities have failed to identify sufficient land supply for new housing. Ten per cent of authorities had a lack of land supply confirmed at appeal in the year to November 2021 with a further 23 per cent publishing under five years of land supply in their most recent statements.

For local authorities requiring nutrient neutrality as a condition of planning approval this figure is slightly higher, at 39 per cent. When you include areas that we have calculated as having fewer than 4.5 years of land supply, the proportion of local authorities increases to 61 per cent. 

Of those claiming a sufficient level of land supply, 17 per cent were found to have fewer than 5.5 years based on our calculation. This does not question the deliverability of sites, but instead compares published supply with the most accurate housing need figure. For local authorities without an up-to-date Local Plan, we have used the Standard Method for assessing local housing need. 

The share of local authorities with both below 4.5 years of land supply and without an up-to-date Local Plan stands at 16 per cent. Between them, these local authorities have a Standard Method housing need of 49,000.

These local authorities also typically perform poorly against the Government’s Housing Delivery Test; and while the official results of last year’s test have not yet been published, our analysis suggests that 33 per cent of authorities with insufficient land supply will face the most severe sanction of the test under the 2021 measurement.

As 2022 gets into full swing we await to see what the official results reveal and what else will emerge to help shape plans for England this year.

^{Source Savills Research, up to date as of November 2021}

Further information

Contact Hamish Simmie or Emily Williams

Savills Planning