Planning overhaul underway as consultation launched

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has said that the delivery of high-quality, sustainable homes that communities need will be at the heart of the most significant reforms to housing policy in decades.

Often criticised for being too sluggish in providing housing for families, key workers and young people and too ineffectual in obligating developers to properly fund the infrastructure to support them, the government maintains that the new changes will keep local community agreement at the centre of proposals.

Valued green spaces and Green Belt will continue to be protected for future generations, with the reforms allowing for more building on brownfield land. This includes proposals for all new streets to be tree lined.

Jenrick believes that reforming the planning system this way will ensure that local housing plans are developed and agreed in 30 months, with a pledge that all new homes will be ‘zero carbon ready’, with no new homes delivered under the new system needing to be retrofitted.

The announcement has been met with some opposition. Shadow Housing and Planning Minister Mike Amesbury said that the government’s Developer’s Charter ‘will see communities side-lined’ in decision-making and ‘denied vital funding for building schools, clinics and community infrastructure’.

The Local Government Association also said that the new proposals must ensure that communities are not ignored, stressing that it is vital that new homes are delivered through a ‘locally-led planning system’ which gives communities the power to ensure new developments are of ‘a high standard, built in the right places, and include affordable homes’.

Jenrick said: “Our complex planning system has been a barrier to building the homes people need; it takes seven years to agree local housing plans and five years just to get a spade in the ground. These once in a generation reforms will lay the foundations for a brighter future, providing more homes for young people and creating better quality neighbourhoods and homes across the country. We will cut red tape, but not standards, placing a higher regard on quality, design and the environment than ever before. Planning decisions will be simple and transparent, with local democracy at the heart of the process.

“As we face the economic effects of the pandemic, now is the time for decisive action and a clear plan for jobs and growth. Our reforms will create thousands of jobs, lessen the dominance of big builders in the system, providing a major boost for small building companies across the country.”

James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “Nine in 10 applications are approved by councils with more than a million homes given planning permission over the last decade yet to be built. The system needs to ensure planning permissions are built. Any loss of local control over developments would be a concern. It would deprive communities of the ability to define the area they live in and know best and risk giving developers the freedom to ride roughshod over local areas.

“We will need to look properly at these proposals in detail, but councils share the aspiration of improving the current planning system to provide greater certainty for communities, encourage brownfield development , to deliver better infrastructure and increase local involvement. It is vital that government fully engages with and takes advantage of the expertise in local government to ensure that their aspirations of an improved system works in practice. We look forward to responding to this consultation in detail and working with government to ensure any reforms improve the system and protect the rights of communities to shape the areas they live in. If we are to truly fix our chronic housing shortage, councils need the tools, powers and flexibilities to plan for and deliver the quality homes and places communities need.”

Alan Jones, RIBA President, said: “While there’s no doubt the planning system needs reform, these shameful proposals do almost nothing to guarantee the delivery of affordable, well-designed and sustainable homes. While they might help to ‘get Britain building’ – paired with the extension of Permitted Development – there’s every chance they could also lead to the creation of the next generation of slum housing. The housing crisis isn’t just about numbers, and deregulation won’t solve it. These reforms might seem radical, but they won’t even scratch the surface when it comes to building the homes we need.”

Kate Henderson, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: "We welcome the government's ambition to build high-quality, sustainable homes and communities. However, they are proposing to scrap the policy which requires private developers to build a certain amount of social homes in every new development - so-called 'Section 106 agreements'. These are the single biggest contribution to building new affordable homes in the country - last year, Section 106 agreements delivered almost 28,000 affordable homes, about half of the total. This policy also helps ensure that every town and community across the country is made up of people on different incomes, living in a range of homes.

"Any alternative to section 106 must ensure we can deliver more high quality affordable homes to meet the huge demand across the country. Any new system must also enable the 'levelling up' of communities that have already been left behind, such as rural communities or places with a struggling local economy. We must also remember that​, ultimately, the best way of ensuring we build ​enough social housing is through direct investment from the government."

Data shows that 280,000 homes received permission in England between 2011 and 2016 but were never built, suggesting that some of the problems highlighted by the government lay in what happens after planning permission, rather than in the planning process itself.