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In December 2022, the Government provided an early Christmas present and published draft proposed amendments to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), launching a public consultation exercise which will run until 2nd March 2023. This follows the recent Ministerial Statement and letter from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, Michael Gove, setting out intended amendments to the proposed Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB). As was widely reported at the time, amendments to the Bill have been pursued in response to backbench unease at the original draft, in turn leading to widespread concern across the development and housing sectors that the proposed reform would fail to effectively deliver housing at the levels needed to address the current housing crisis and future needs and worse still, reduce existing levels of delivery.

DHA will be reviewing the proposed NPPF amendments in detail and remain on hand to advise clients on potential implications, however key takeaways from an initial review are summarised below. It should though be noted that this is just the start of a series of consultations and proposed amendments, which will run in parallel with progression of the LURB with a more widespread NPPF review to follow in due course as the LURB progresses:

 

Local Plans

  • Local Plans no longer need to be ‘justified' (currently defined as being "an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence") in order to be found sound.
  • Plans would no longer have to meet objectively assessed needs "as a minimum" and could now only have to meet those needs "so far as possible, taking into account the policies in this Framework".
  • Clear evidence of past over-delivery can be used to reduce housing requirements of future Plans.
  • Provisions to allow authorities to adopt Plans which do not meet objectively assessed housing needs where any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits remains. Clarification is though proposed to be added that this "may include situations where meeting need in full would mean building at densities significantly out of character with the existing area".
  • It is proposed that Green Belt boundaries are not required to be reviewed and altered if this would be the only means of meeting the objectively assessed need for housing over the plan period.

 

Housing Supply and Need

  • The standard method is now more explicitly to be taken as "an advisory starting-point for establishing a housing requirement for the area"
  • The standard method applies a 20% uplift on the 20 most populated cities and urban centres – increasing density on brownfield and under-utilised urban sites is expressly encouraged.
  • Housing requirement figures adopted by authorities "may be higher than the identified housing need, if it includes provision for neighbouring areas, or reflects growth ambitions linked to economic development or infrastructure investment"
  • The requirement for authorities to demonstrate a five year housing land supply would remain, but would only apply in cases where the extant Local Plan is more than five years old
  • Where emerging local plans have been submitted for examination or where they have been subject to a Regulation 18 or Regulation 19 consultation which included both a policies map and proposed allocations towards meeting housing need, the housing land supply requirement will be four years rather than five. These arrangements will apply for a period of two years from the publication date of the revised NPPF.
  • Retirement housing, housing with care and care homes need are now explicitly referenced as types of specialist housing need to be assessed and reflected in planning policies.
  • Proposed removal of buffers to be applied to five year housing land supply figures;
  • Where an authority has a Housing Delivery Test result of less than 75%, the presumption in favour would still apply. It is though proposed that in these circumstances the presumption in favour would not apply if that authority had granted permissions for housing in excess of 115% of the requirement over the same period.

 

Neighbourhood Plans

  • It is proposed to further strengthen the weight given to Neighbourhood Plans – it is proposed that NP areas with a NP adopted less than five years ago and which contain policies and allocations to meet its identified housing requirement are in most circumstances exempt from the presumption in favour being satisfied (pursuant to Paragraph 11d), Previously this applied for a two year period only.
  • The existing three year supply and 45% delivery thresholds are proposed to no longer be determinative in applying the tilted balance.

 

Other Amendments

  • There are many areas where reference to ‘beauty' is included as a measure of good design;
  • It is proposed to introduce Community-Led Developments, defined as "those that are driven by non-profit organisations that are owned by and accountable to their community members. The community group or organisation owns, manages or stewards the homes and other assets in a manner of their choosing, and this may be done through a mutually supported arrangement with a Registered Provider that owns the freehold or leasehold for the property. The benefits to the specified community are clearly defined and legally protected in perpetuity."
  • Specific allowance for mansard roof extensions to further promote use of airspace above existing residential and commercial premises.
  • "To support energy efficiency improvements, significant weight should be given to the need to support energy efficiency improvements through the adaptation of existing buildings, particularly large non-domestic buildings, to improve their energy performance (including through installation of heat pumps and solar panels where these do not already benefit from permitted development rights)."
  • It is proposed to broaden the issues to be considered for development affecting agricultural land to include "The availability of agricultural land used for food production", beyond the existing wording relating to land quality.

 

It's notable that the proposed amendments fail to take an opportunity to review other areas of the NPPF including how to effectively meet employment needs and how policy can best respond to challenges town centres are increasingly facing in a post-covid world, although wider amendments are anticipated to follow.

 

DHA would be keen to receive thoughts from clients and colleagues on the proposed changes and help shape responses to the consultation, so please get in touch with our team to discuss further.

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