Sadiq Khan’s London Plan, the draft of which was published this morning, has set out borough-wide housing targets for small sites, designated as 25 homes or less.
Off-site payments in lieu of affordable housing will also be sought on schemes of 10 homes or less.
The draft has set out ambitious targets to build 64,935 homes per annum. The small sites policy envisages a target of 24,573 homes (nearly 38%) to be from small schemes.
However, the amount of homes within small sites as a percentage of the total across the different boroughs varies drastically, with Sutton and Richmond expected to provide nearly 80% of new homes from small sites. The other extreme will see the Old Oak and Park Royal and London Legacy Development Corporations provide just 0.4% and 3.7% respectively.
The London Plan states:
“For London to meet its housing needs, small housing developments of between one and 25 homes must make a substantially greater contribution to new supply across the city.
“Therefore, increasing the rate of housing delivery from small housing sites is a strategic priority. Achieving this objective will require positive and proactive planning by boroughs, both in terms of planning decisions and plan-making.”
Local planning authorities will be encouraged to recognise that “local character evolves over time and will need to change in appropriate location” as well as “proactively encourage increased housing provision and higher residential densities on small housing developments.”
The document also sets out how local authorities can increase planning certainty by identifying and allocating appropriate small sites for residential development and listing them on brownfield registers.
Other related housing and planning policy objectives will also benefit, including reviving the role of small and medium-sized developers.
Affordable housing will still be sought for 10 units or more, with those schemes with less now expected to make a payment in lieu of affordable housing.
“For some boroughs, sites of 10 or fewer units are the main source of supply and play an important role in contributing to affordable housing delivery, often via cash in lieu contributions.
“Given the important role these sites play, boroughs are encouraged to include policies requiring affordable housing from such sites of 10 or fewer units in their development plans.”
Looking at EG Data from 2012-17, it is clear that more schemes are brought through the planning system with nine units or less, where affordable housing policy doesn’t exist to capture either on-site homes or off-site payments in lieu.
This would suggest a cliff-edge exists due to planning policy.
Islington and, more recently, Southwark are two boroughs that have increasingly sought off-site payments for schemes of 10 or less homes. Khan now wants to see this more widespread across the capital.
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