The following is a list of the “carrots” and “sticks” intended to facilitate housing provision from local government and developers, according to the recently released housing white paper.
Council carrots: councils could be able to:
• increase planning fees by up to 40%;
• introduce a fee for developers for making a planning appeal;
• receive £25m of new funding to help ambitious authorities in areas of high housing need plan for new homes and infrastructure;
• target the £2.3bn housing infrastructure fund at the areas of greatest housing need;
• improve the use of digital tools to make plans and planning data more accessible;
• allow locally accountable new town development corporations to be set up, enabling local areas to use them as a delivery vehicle if they wish to; and
• use stronger compulsory purchase powers to support the build-out of stalled sites.
Council sticks: councils could be subject to:
• a new housing delivery test, which will force local authorities to grant planning permission if they fail to reach land release targets;
• a standardised approach to assessing housing requirements, to be introduced by April 2018;
• a review of local plans or other development documents every five years;
• an amended national policy requiring local planning authorities to identify the development opportunities so that government investment is offered at the time funding is committed; the rule also states that when councils review their plans they should seek to maximise the potential capacity that could be unlocked by major new infrastructure;
• a requirement to have planning policies that set out how high-quality digital infrastructure will be delivered in each council’s area;
• a strengthened national policy requiring local planning authorities to have clear policies for addressing the housing requirements of groups with particular needs, such as older and disabled people; and
• an expectation that local policies support the development of small “windfall” development sites.
Developer carrots: developers could be able to:
• benefit from a pledge to tackle unnecessary delays caused by planning conditions;
• benefit from a change to the NPPF so authorities know they should plan pro-actively for build to rent where there is a need;
• benefit from a streamlined licensing system for managing great crested newts – the species that particularly affects development;
• avoid delays with a rule that design should not be used as a valid reason to object to development where it accords with clear design expectations set out in statutory plans;
• expand their skilled labour pool through an improvement in the way the government supports training in the construction industry; and
• build higher-density schemes where there is a shortage of land for meeting identified housing requirements.
Developer sticks: developers could have to:
• provide more information about the timing and pace of delivery of new housing;
• publish aggregate information on build out rates – this applies only to large housebuilders;
• implement a permission for housing development in two years instead of three, except where a shorter timescale could hinder the viability or deliverability of a scheme; and
• contend with a requirement for councils to consider an applicant’s track record of delivering previous, similar housing schemes when determining planning applications for housing development.
• To send feedback, e-mail louisa.clarence-smith@estatesgazette.com or tweet @LouisaClarence or @estatesgazette
