The Government's recent announcement of Labour's revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) underscores a bold commitment to delivering 1.5 million homes over the next five years. Key proposals include reintroducing mandatory local housing targets and increasing the national housing delivery goal from 300,000 homes to 370,000 homes a year.
These promises have given the built environment sector an increased sense of urgency to implement change, aiming to deliver social, economic and environmental benefits through the planning system.
Housing delivery remains a crucial aspect of these reforms. The Government's reintroduction of mandatory housing targets, an expanded definition of brownfield land, the newly created definition of grey belt and the need to undertake green belt reviews where required, are strongly supported by the sector.
With 50% affordable housing embedded into the grey belt and green belt development, there needs to be more funding available to deliver this. Labour's intentions to increase funds through the Local Authority Housing Fund and the subsequent Spending Review are promising, as are the potential future flexibility for Registered Providers to invest more of their money in new social housing.
However, the real anticipation lies in the Government's strategy in tackling the root causes of under delivery of homes through infrastructure provision, along with the objective of stimulating the economy by supporting all forms of growth through the planning system.
This holistic approach through the lens of strategic planning, could transform London's urban landscape and beyond, making the south east a fairer, more dynamic, sustainable and economically vibrant place.
Previous attempts at reform have often only focused on addressing the symptoms of a lack of investment. By expanding the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime to include water infrastructure, transport infrastructure, renewable energy projects (and potentially others) means that we can better deal with the barriers to housing delivery and the underlying reasons for this.
This will also serve to highlight the often-forgotten impact the planning system can have on getting to net zero by 2030, supporting a low carbon future and stimulating the economy at the same time – with economic recovery through development to fund the social housing that the Government has committed to delivering.
For London, I hope that with a Labour mayor and Government, the consensus will now be on delivery. This should mean a shorter, more pragmatic London Plan with guidance that promotes and does not hinder or over-burden development.
As suggested by Whitehall, householder planning application fees need to rise to cover processing costs. With the lack of local authority resourcing, we need to make sure officers focus on strategic applications to make the most impact. To achieve this, the national scheme of delegation needs to be put in place as soon as possible.
While there's further detail and legislation to be settled, the new Government must take a firm lead in implementing its policy and collaborate with the sector to make positive change.
Laura Jenkinson is principal, London planning consultancy at Avison Young
