The government has finalised changes to the National Planning Policy Framework to accelerate housebuilding and deliver its 1.5 million homes pledge over the next five years.
Under the plans councils will be told they must meet housing needs by reaching a new combined target of 370,000 homes a year.
This comes less than a week after prime minister Keir Starmer announced the Plan for Change which set out the government aimed delivery of 1.5 million homes.
Starmer also pledged to decide on at least 150 new infrastructure projects on top of its 1.5 million homes commitment.
On top of the proposed reforms, new 10-year strategies for housing and infrastructure are set to be published next Spring.
The new mandatory targets outlined in the announced planning reforms aim to provide a boost to communities, ramp up housebuilding, and to tackle the UK’s housing crisis.
The government claims 1.3 million households in the UK are currently on housing wait list with a record number of households in temporary accommodation.
Under new planning rules, updated via the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF):
- New immediate mandatory housing targets for councils to increase housebuilding and deliver growth.
- Areas with the highest unaffordability for housing and greatest potential for growth will see housebuilding targets increase.
- Stronger action to ensure councils adopt up-to-date local plans or develop new plans that work for their communities.
- A new ‘common-sense’ approach introduced to the greenbelt, with brownfield first approach councils told to review greenbelt boundaries to meet targets, identifying and prioritising so-called ‘grey belt’ land.
- Developers will be required to provide the necessary infrastructure for local communities, such as nurseries, GP surgeries and transport, and social and affordable housing for greenbelt developments.
- Councils and developers will need to give greater consideration to social rent when building new homes
- Local leaders will have greater powers to build ‘genuinely’ affordable homes for those who need them most.
Starmer said: “We owe it to those working families to take urgent action, and that is what this government is doing.
“Our Plan for Change will put builders not blockers first, overhaul the broken planning system and put roofs over the heads of working families and drive the growth that will put more money in people’s pockets.”
According to the government, under the current planning framework, less than a third of local authorities have adopted a local plan within the last five years with the number of homes granted planning permission falling to its lowest level in a decade.
Following consultation, areas will be required to commit to timetables for new plans within 12 weeks the updated NPPF or ministers will be able to use existing intervention powers to ensure plans are put in place.
Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive at LGIU, said: “Local government is eager to support the Government’s house building agenda.
“But planning is only one part of this picture. House building has to be seen in the context of local economic development, skills provision and public service delivery.
“As leaders of place – councils are not just concerned with delivering houses but with building homes and communities.
“It’s right that the Government has high expectations of councils, but they also need to provide them with the support that will enable them to rise to this challenge.”
Neil Jefferson, chief executive at the Home Builders Federation (HBF), said: “The swift moves to address the constraints in the planning system are welcome and underline the Government’s commitment to increasing housing delivery, but further policy interventions are needed if we are to meet the ambitious target.
“Demand for new homes is supressed by a lack of affordable mortgage lending and support for first-time buyers in particular is desperately needed.
“We also need to release the tens of thousands of unsold affordable homes provided by house builders as part of their planning permissions, that cash-strapped Housing Associations are not able to currently acquire; and a solution to the unnecessary nutrient neutrality issue that is holding up around 160,000 new homes.”
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