Tag Archives: planning

Planning Ahead: news, views and insights – October 2022

In this issue of Planning Ahead we have five articles. We review the Conservative Party Conference, look at yet another local plan being delayed and provide insights into the new DLUHC ministerial team. We also have two interesting snippets from the Government on planning consents and the size of the green belt.  Please do feel free to get in touch and share your thoughts.

  • Conservative Party Conference, Birmingham 2022 As always, the annual party conference was a hectic affair, but this year had the added spice of yet another new Government and Prime Minister, but all did not go to plan! We summarise the key elements relating to development and planning.  More…
  • Another local plan pushed into the long grass Basildon Council agreed last month the new LDS for its local plan, having withdrawn its previous one back in April. It has the new local plan adoption in 2027! This is the latest in a long line of councils dragging their feet – Uttlesford, St Albans, Castle Point, Hertsmere to name but a few. More…
  • New DLUHC Ministerial Team The new ministerial team at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and communities (DLUHC) is led by new Secretary of State, The Rt Hon Simon Clarke MP. More…
  • Planning consents fall The number of planning applications in England has fallen by 12 per cent, when compared with the same period in 2021. More…
  • Green belt is actually growing According to latest government statistics the green belt has grown by 24,150 hectares, or 1.5 per cent of the total. More…

Skills Summit: Social value from planning and procurement

Willmott Dixon hosted a skills summit at Harlow College in October. Speakers included Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, who is chair of the Education Select Committee, together with Brentwood Council, Essex County Council and Westminster City Council. A full write-up of this will appear in the next issue.

Local Plan updates

Chelgate Local brings you Local Plan updates for councils across the south east: Basildon, Brentwood, Epping Forest, Harlow, Medway, Sevenoaks and many more…

Another local plan pushed into the long grass

Basildon Council agreed last month the new LDS for its local plan, having withdrawn its previous one back in April. It has the new local plan adoption in 2027! This is the latest in a long line of councils dragging their feet – Uttlesford, St Albans, Castle Point, Hertsmere to name but a few.

Councils reluctant

These Is a reluctance from some councils to give what amounts to consent to significant development within their areas where this could be considered politically unpalatable. The Government is in a difficult situation: it knows it needs to build more homes, but those homes are needed more in the south east, in the blue shires, where the prospect of development is not welcomed by Conservative grass root supporters. The Conservative leadership only has to look at the Amersham and Chesham by-election last year.

Councils know this, and DLUHC has done nothing to provide clarity with past ministers commenting on various aspects of local plans, undermining existing policy, including the sanctity of green belt, how the housing targets are calculated and the timescales.

The manifesto pledge to build 300,000 homes per year has not been mentioned recently, although it cannot be dropped, not officially anyway, it may be quietly parked and forgotten.

Growth, Growth, Growth

The Prime Minister has made her objective clear in her speech at the Conservative Party Conference last week; growth, growth, growth. Development and regeneration are key engines to any growth, as was seen after the Great Depression and after the Second World War.

The new Secretary of State, Simon Clark MP, has been leaking various proposals on planning reforms to gauge responses. These have included conducting a charm offensive turning NIMBYs into YIMBYs, a bonfire of red tape from the EU, reducing the requirement for affordable housing, amending nutrient pollution requirements and re-looking at biodiversity.

Housing Targets

Suggestions that the housing targets will be dropped is premature, but it is likely the way they are calculated could be changed. The onus may be upon planning authorities to come up with numbers, and then provide the evidence base to justify them to the inspector. That will undoubtedly lead to numerous court cases.

Clark has said that more detail on proposals will come out in the coming weeks and months. We will wait and see.

Sustainability in residential development

London sees slump in residential development

By Vivienne Shirley, Senior Consultant

Only five of London’s 33 boroughs met their targets for housing need during 2017-18, with twenty delivering less than half, according to Knight Frank’s latest London Residential Development Report.

Whilst Mayor Sadiq Khan set the capital the target of building 66,000 new homes annually, already lower than the government’s housing need figure of 72,407, just 31,723 additional dwellings were built – less than half the number required.

This represents a 13% drop on the year before, largely due to a slump in the number of offices converted to residential accommodation under permitted development rights (PDR). These fell by 52%, suggesting most suitable space has already been converted since the introduction of PDR in 2013. However, this figure could lift again once the government’s proposals on extending PDR for upwards extensions, confirmed in the Spring Statement, come into place.

Other factors suppressing housebuilding include weak sales activity. Patrick Gower, Residential Research Associate at Knight Frank, commented, “The market faces structural challenges that are suppressing long-term sales activity, including stretched affordability, tighter mortgage regulations introduced in the wake of the financial crisis, and patchy house price growth.”

Activity has been dampened further amid the uncertainty caused by Brexit, with sales in Q3 2018 down 12% on 2017 as buyers waited for greater clarity about Britain’s future EU relationship as the March departure date approached – that wait now looks set to continue for at least a few more weeks. While Knight Frank’s data indicates pent up demand for new homes, with the ratio of new prospective buyers to homes available at the highest level in four years, many developers are holding off on starting new schemes until sales activity picks up.

Brexit is also at least partly the culprit for the rising costs faced by developers, which have increased by 14% in the three years to January 2019. This includes labour and material costs, with the cost of imports driven up by the weak pound. Over a quarter of London’s construction workforce come from other EU countries, with one fifth saying they have considered leaving the country due to Brexit uncertainties in a recent survey.

Delivery may well fall yet further judging by the planning and construction pipeline. Applications for 20+ private units continued to drop by more than 10,000 since 2014 to 40,461, while the number of 20+ units that started construction in 2018 was 23,130 – a decline of 32% since 2015. With the number of homeless deaths in the capital continuing to rise, and all 32 London boroughs among the top 45 local authorities with the highest per capita spend on temporary accommodation, government may need to consider stepping in to build urgently needed social housing while private developers wait for the Brexit uncertainty to pass.

Planning news, views and insight – March 2019

Marching into Spring: Rosewell Review, focus on micro-homes, Housing Delivery Test, and importance of infrastructure

  • Rosewell ‘appeals’ for quicker decisions
    Time to determine planning appeals could be cut almost by half, a Government-commissioned review has found… Read more
  • Micro-housing under the microscope
    As Londoners spend almost a third of income on rent, and the number of homeowners under 45 falls by almost a million… Read more
  • Crunch time as over 100 councils fail Housing Delivery Test
    The results of the first MHCLG Housing Delivery Test – long touted as the mechanism that would hold councils to account for their failure… Read more
  • Is placemaking back on the agenda? 
    Quality design in all its facets and ‘place’ are key streams in the new revised NPPF, including a new chapter 12: “Achieving well-designed places”… Read more

Local Plan updates

Chelgate Local brings you Local Plan updates for Aylesbury Vale, Basildon, Brentwood, Central Beds, Chelmsford, Chiltern and South Bucks, Dacorum, East Herts, Epping, Epsom and Ewell, Harlow, Medway, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley and many more…

March Breakfast Briefing in Herts on Infrastructure-led Growth

Our breakfast briefing in March is on ‘Infrastructure-led growth’ and will take a look at the key projects driving growth throughout the South East.

Keynote speakers will be joining us from MHCLG, Lichfields and local authorities in London and Hertfordshire to set out their views on how infrastructure should be delivered to help our new communities take shape.

Presentations will be followed by a panel discussion, and a full networking breakfast will be provided.

Join us on Wednesday 6th March, from 8:00am – 10:00am, at the De Vere Theobalds Estate in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Click here to register.

Rosewell ‘appeals’ for quicker decisions

By Kasia Banas, Consultant

The time taken to determine planning appeals could be cut by almost half, a Government-commissioned review has found.

In the report published on 12 February 2019, Bridget Rosewell CBE concluded that the average duration of the process could be “slashed” from 47 weeks to around 26 weeks. She found that “outdated administrative processes and poor IT infrastructure were unnecessarily holding up cases”, and “a lack of suitably qualified inspectors was also hampering efforts to set up inquiry hearings on time”.

The report does not advocate for an overhaul of the process but focuses on building on its existing strengths. It makes 22 recommendations and calls for improvements in areas of early engagement by all stakeholders, greater certainty about timescales, and employing technology to increase efficiency and transparency. Some of the measures include launching an online portal for the submission of inquiry appeals or preparing a strategy for hiring additional inspectors.

Response so far

The Planning Inspectorate has welcomed the report and will be working to prepare an implementation plan for delivery of its recommendations.

The formal response from MHCLG can be expected later in the year but housing secretary James Brokenshire has said that this “fantastic report” gives the government “a clear direction of travel on how we can ensure the appeals inquiry process is fit for purpose”. He expects that speeding up the decision-making process will ensure the delivery of more homes, in the right places, and will help the government reach its target of 300,000 new homes a year by the mid-2020s.

While reactions to the report from the sector have been largely positive, Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, expressed his concerns over the effect the tighter deadlines might have on inspectors’ ability to visit local communities and assess circumstances on the ground.

The Planning Inspectorate granted planning permissions for around 30,000 new homes through the appeals process last year. Hopefully implementation of Rosewell’s proposals will result in a more efficient delivery of the much-needed homes, while weeding out the low-quality schemes.

Planning news, views and insight – February 2019

2019 picks up speed: Land values languish, key infrastructure projects, jobs boom but young suffer, and breakfast briefing recap

  • Three key infrastructure projects to watch in 2019
    Ahead of Chelgate’s Breakfast Briefing on ‘Infrastructure-led Growth’ , we take a look at three of the key infrastructure projects set to drive growth… Read more
  • Land values languish amid Brexit uncertainty
    Land values slumped at the end of 2018 thanks to increasing build costs and economic uncertainty over Brexit, according to Knight Frank… Read more
  • Jobs boom but young are left bust
    Britain is seeing unprecedented jobs and employment growth despite an ageing population and increased health problems, a new report has shown… Read more
  • Waking up to an ageing population
    January saw Chelgate Local kick off 2019 with another successful breakfast briefing event. The Chelgate team partnered up with Barton Willmore to host… Read more

Local Plan updates

Chelgate Local brings you Local Plan updates for Aylesbury Vale, Basildon, Brentwood, Central Beds, Chelmsford, Chiltern and South Bucks, Dacorum, East Herts, Epping, Epsom and Ewell, Harlow, Medway, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley and many more…

March Breakfast Briefing in Herts on Infrastructure-led Growth

Our breakfast briefing in March is on ‘Infrastructure-led growth’ and will take a look at the key projects driving growth throughout the South East.

Keynote speakers will be joining us from MHCLG, Lichfields and local authorities in London and Hertfordshire to set out their views on how infrastructure should be delivered to help our new communities take shape.

Presentations will be followed by a panel discussion, and a full networking breakfast will be provided.

Join us on Wednesday 6th March, from 8:00am – 10:00am, at the De Vere Theobalds Estate in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Click here to register.

planning news

Planning Ahead – Planning news, views and insight – November 2018

This month: Letwin on land banking, Malthouse ignores ONS stats, upwards extensions, HRA borrowing cap and TCPA’s tips on affordable housing

  • Malthouse calls for “more, better, faster” as Gov ignore latest population stats
    Government will not change  housing targets despite official statistics predicting lower household growth than previously thought, it was confirmed… Read more
  • Onwards and upwards for extensions?
    The government has launched a fresh consultation on permitted development rights (PDR) for upwards extensions… Read more
  • TCPA proposes 13 steps to deliver truly affordable housing
    The planning system is failing to deliver affordable homes in the country’s poorest areas, a new report claims… Read more
  • Government lifts HRA borrowing cap
    In one of the biggest announcements from this year’s Conservative Party conference, Theresa May presented government’s plans to remove… Read more
  • Letwin Lets Rip in Build Out Review
    Oliver Letwin MP’s new report confirms house builders do not land bank, and sets out a number of measures to speed up housebuilding… Read more
  • Budget 2018 Special
    Hammond’s highly-anticipated pre-Brexit budget was slightly underwhelming from a housing and planning perspective. However, he did admit… Read more

Local Plan updates
Chelgate Local brings you Local Plan updates for Aylesbury Vale, Basildon, Brentwood, Central Beds, Chelmsford, Chiltern and South Bucks, Dacorum, East Herts, Epping, Epsom and Ewell, Harlow, Medway, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley and many more…

Chelgate Local invites you to our Breakfast Briefing on the Role of County Councils
We welcome you to attend our breakfast briefing on the shifting role of county councils in planning, with a focus on Hertfordshire.

We will hear from local politicians, housing associations and developers on how county councils are playing a far greater role in the planning of infrastructure and larger developments.

Come along on 7th December, 8-10am in St Albans. Email vshirley@chelgate.com to reserve your spot, places are limited!

TCPA proposes 13 steps to deliver truly affordable housing

By Daniel Fryd, Senior Consultant

Despite positive moves to get councils building, the planning system is failing to deliver affordable homes in the country’s poorest areas, a new TCPA report suggests.

The responsibility for building affordable homes is now firmly in councils’ courts following the Prime Minister’s move to lift the Housing Revenue account borrowing cap. Make no mistake – scrapping the borrowing cap is a huge move which means councils finally have the freedom they have been crying out for to significantly boost affordable housing supply.

According to a new research paper from the TCPA, however, the scale of the housing crisis is so severe that despite the new freedom for councils to build, the planning system will continue to fill the gap through requiring developers to build affordable housing within new developments.

With a woeful 2% of councils achieving their full affordable housing target through the planning system, there is clearly a long way to go and further changes needed before we see a genuine uplift in supply. Getting councils building is only one part of the solution.

Affording “affordable” homes

To unpick the problem with affordable housing you have to take a step back.

Speak to young people looking to get on the housing ladder about ‘affordable housing’ and you face the same questions: what does ‘affordable’ actually mean? Affordable to whom?

The fact the new NPPF now links affordable housing to market rates, especially in high value areas like London, simply means it in is line with the price of other homes which are broadly unaffordable for young people.

The TCPA report ‘Planning for Affordable Housing’, released just weeks before Budget 2018, draws on this as a key theme in the report, suggesting the definition of affordable homes should be amended in the NPPF to be based on a measure of local income instead of being pegged to an arbitrary proportion of market rates.

Linking provision of affordable homes to market rates, rather than local incomes, can lead to a situation where councils cannot set their own rents based on local incomes to ensure they meet local need.

13 steps to build affordable homes

Drawing on this, ‘Planning for Affordable Housing’ puts forward 13 recommendations to improve the planning system to deliver affordable housing, including an overarching recommendation for Government to set a target for the number of new affordable homes the country needs, and a strategy for how to achieve this figure.

Key recommendations include reform of viability assessments to ensure developers build affordable homes after planning approval, reform of land value capture to remove the ‘hope value’ of land and the rescinding of permitted development rights, which delivers no affordable.

None of these proposals are likely to prove popular with developers, however. The viability system is heavily relied on by developers building homes in expensive areas of high demand (i.e. the entire South East), in order to make their investment feasible.

Land value capture reform has proven unpopular in discussions held by the HCLG committee with developers and planners – Ian Fletcher, director of real estate policy at the British Property Federation (BPF), highlighted that “Crudely applied reform… will deter much-needed private sector investment into housing delivery and our town and city centres.”

The Letwin Review

The Letwin Review, published this week at the same time as the Autumn Budget, revealed quite bold plans for councils to compulsorily purchase land at a rate capped at “around ten times existing use value” in order to provide the affordable housing the market requires. This will be an interesting attempt to crack the nut of land value capture in a way which does not drive down land supply.

The removal of the HRA borrowing cap, as well as the announcements in this week’s Budget for an extra £650m for councils, and a further £500m of funding for the Housing Infrastructure Fund, to unlock 650,000 homes, will go some way to meeting the housing deficit.

Further measures and further planning changes are clearly still needed before we see a real uptick in provision, however.

Read more about the latest planning news:

  • Malthouse calls for “more, better, faster” as Gov ignore latest population stats – Read more
  • Onwards and upwards for extensions? – Read more
  • Government lifts HRA borrowing cap – Read more
  • Letwin Lets Rip in Build Out Review – Read more
  • Budget 2018 Special – Read more