In March 2012, the Government ripped up 1,300 pages of planning policy and condensed it into the 65 pages that form the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The aim was to streamline the planning system in order to engender a more positive approach to development.

The NPPF also devolved power to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), enabling them to define the scale and nature of future development in their area within a Local Plan, the benchmark against which planning applications will then be considered.

What do these changes mean in practice?

The onus is now on LPAs to plan for enough housing land supply to meet local needs. Previously, Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) dictated the housing targets for individual LPAs, but their ongoing revocation leaves LPAs to set their own targets. Once these are set, the NPPF then requires LPAs to demonstrate a deliverable five year supply of housing land plus a buffer of up to 20% extra where an authority has historically under-delivered.

How fast are changes being adopted?

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), 71% of LPAs have at least published a draft development plan. However, a recent Savills review of 190 LPAs in Southern England revealed that nearly half do not have a fully up-to-date plan. Only 6.3% have Local Plans which have been judged by a Planning Inspector to be consistent with the NPPF.

How does this affect future housing?

The number of homes planned per year in both draft and adopted plans has dropped by 6.1% since the process of scrapping RSS was initiated. This has the knock-on effect of resulting in lower land supply requirements.

Across the greater south east of England specifically, the average housing land supply reported by LPAs themselves is only marginally above the current minimum requirement of 5.25 years at just 5.7 years (see Map 5.1).

Overall, however, a third of those LPAs reviewed report not having the required five year housing land supply.

What are the implications?

If a LPA does not have an up-to-date Local Plan or a demonstrable five year housing land supply, planning applications will have to be considered against the principles outlined in the NPPF that gives a “presumption in favour of sustainable development”.

The lack of a five year land supply is being given greater weight by Planning Inspectors where planning applications are being determined at Appeal. This is likely to be an important factor behind the increasing number of planning permissions that are now coming through the system, as reported by the Home Builders Federation.

Savills has reviewed all significant residential planning appeals to see how this fallback provision has been implemented. Since April 2012, almost three quarters of planning appeals for large residential developments have been allowed, granting permission for a total of 11,669 dwellings. Previously, it was far harder to secure large scale permissions through appeal.

Looking forward

The Localism Act 2011 and the NPPF give LPAs the freedom to plan locally to meet the needs of their area, providing the basis on which communities can justify their defence against inappropriate or unwanted development.

However, our research suggests that the delay in bringing forward these plans and the marginal supply of housing land identified by LPAs, affords the development industry the opportunity to bring forward planning applications much earlier than perhaps would have been planned, with a far greater chance of success than before.

As these implications come to light, and pressure from local communities increases, we expect to see LPAs increase the pace of their Plan production, with greater involvement from the public through neighbourhood planning.

The financial support and incentives that the house building industry has been provided with by the Government is likely to add further to the impetus to pursue planning permissions, very much in alignment with the Government’s pro-growth attitude to housing development.

How CIL works

Funding strategic infrastructure

Where adopted, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a tax charged per square metre of new build development, which is then pooled to pay for the delivery of strategic infrastructure. The intention was that the Levy would give more certainty to developers and house-builders, compared to Section 106 planning obligations that were negotiated on a case by case basis.

Since 2010, when the CIL Regulations were first introduced only 14 CILs have been implemented across England and Wales, but 217 are in the process of producing them. The main driver behind their adoption by LPAs is the further tightening of restrictions on the pooling of Section 106 planning obligations after April 2014; a deadline which the Government currently propose to extend by a year.

CIL and the local planning process are inherently linked. CIL is to fund infrastructure identified within an up-to-date Local Plan and the rate of the Levy should be set having regard to the scale and nature of planned development. It is therefore a prerequisite that a Local Plan is in place, or that CIL is developed and tested alongside an emerging Plan.

The delay in bringing forward Plans may therefore result in communities missing out on the collection of CIL levies towards community infrastructure.

Taken from
Residential Property Focus Q2 2013

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