The government has announced more measures as part of its long-term plan for housing. It includes actions aimed at speeding up new development and support for large scale development projects.
In a statement issued in December 2023, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, say they have committed to regeneration and housing delivery across England.
They intend to facilitate regeneration in Cambridge, central London and central Leeds and make Barrow a new powerhouse of the North.
Reforms to the planning system aim to ‘unlock planning decisions’, with more money to be ploughed into local planning capacity and a new ‘super-squad’ of experts to be put in place to push through large developments.
Gove intends to make communities grow, saying: “Too many local authorities have no up-to-date plan, too many take too long to get their plan in place and too many plans do not deliver as they should. Even when plans are in place, too many local authorities take too long to determine applications, too many reject proposals which are in line with their policies, and officers’ recommendations, and too many fail to ensure a proper pipeline of housing delivery.”
The terms ‘plan’ and ‘local plan’ refer to development, ie. housing and shops and identify land where these will be built.
He went on to say: “There is now no excuse for local authorities not rapidly adopting ambitious plans. The more plans adopted quickly, the more homes delivered quickly – and we have created the right incentives for rapid plan adoption.”
Local authorities are likely to face difficulties if they try to restrict building. Talking about the numbers of homes to be built, the minister said: “Where a local authority considers the number unachievable, it must provide robust evidence for that judgment.”
Extensive pressure will be placed on local authorities to have an up-to-date plan for development in place, with those pushing forward with this rewarded.
Those who do not have adequate development plans in place risk having development forced upon them. “And tough measures will bite where local authorities do not have an up-to-date local plan. They will be required to update their supply annually, and if they fail to do so, they will therefore be subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development. Local authorities will have a clearer than ever incentive to get plans in place. Without them, authorities will not be able to control development as their community might wish. There are clear consequences to failing to get a plan in place which delivers a pipeline of new housing.”
All local authorities will be required to account for under-delivery, with the threat of development being forced upon them if they do not enable the building of enough new houses.
Councils have also been told to agree to changes in developments, whether or not they want to: “… councils should be open and pragmatic in agreeing changes to developments where conditions mean that the original plan may no longer be viable, rather than losing the development wholesale or seeing development mothballed; …”
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