‘I will make sure every local authority is held to account for delivery against its plan, for the speed with which planning applications are processed and the rationality of their decision-making,’ said Gove.
The secretary of state has recognised the important role of architects and planners, but this must be backed with further resource. Delivering high-quality, sustainable and genuinely affordable new homes will require more skilled expertise in overstretched local planning departments. As was acknowledged, to do this we must ensure fees paid for planning applications are invested back into the system.
That figure is almost 20 per cent fewer than the same period last year and the lowest level since the House Builders Federation (HBF) started reporting the figures in 2006, The Times reported.
The announcement comes after figures by industry tracker Glenigan this week found permissions for new homes at a record new low, at 2,778 applications given the nod in the 12 months to September.
Vicky Fowler, head of planning at law firm Gowling WLG, was more positive, saying: ‘The fact that the market has responded so positively to these upcoming measures demonstrates how much housebuilders require a planning overhaul by government in order to facilitate genuine growth.’
‘Local authorities have the comfort of knowing that they need not redraw the green belt or sacrifice protected landscapes to meet housing numbers,’ Gove said.
Responding to Gove’s speech, Clive Betts MP, chair of the Commons Levelling up Committee, said in a statement: ‘We have a national shortage of housing in England but the Secretary of State’s speech today didn’t provide clarity on how we are to achieve the national housing target of building 300,000 net new homes per year by the mid-2020s.
He continued: ‘But it is also the case that I will continue to look at other ways in which we can simplify and streamline the system because [of] the care and thought that should go into planning any new development, the care and thought on the part of the planners and architects, not caring for unsatisfying tick-box bureaucratic criteria.’
A similar threat was issued to London mayor Sadiq Khan, who, Gove said, had failed to meet the city’s housing needs. He also warned that the London Mayor’s planning powers would be taken away if the secretary of state felt updates to the London Plan were unsatisfactory.
Gove claimed that government – which last year effectively shelved its previous 300,000 new homes a year target, having never reached the figure – was ‘on course’ to meet its newer target of one million new homes during this Parliament.
‘For all the talk of getting tough with local authorities, without mandatory local housing targets, it’s not clear how many houses will need to be built in local areas to deliver the national target.
He told the RIBA that local authorities that delay deciding on planning applications would risk having their planning powers removed under the NPPF changes. Councils will not be forced to build on the green belt nor when schemes significantly change the character of an area, however.
Asked by RIBA chair Jack Pringle whether the reforms would make the planning process quicker, Gove said planning should be more ‘predictable’ and that the changes to the NPPF would deliver faster outcomes. It remains unclear what specific changes would make this possible, however.
‘If the rest of the country had built housing at the same rate as London since 2016, there would be more than 300,000 additional homes nationwide,’ the spokesperson added.
Gove ‘named and shamed’ seven local authorities – St Albans, Amber Valley, Ashfield, Medway, Uttlesford, Basildon and Castlepoint – as those which faced having planning powers removed if they did not deliver locals plans for housing in the next 12 weeks.
The RIBA also said the definition of ‘beauty’ was ‘contested’ and that it was just ‘one element’ of good place-making in criticism of the government’s focus on a ‘beautiful’ aesthetic in the NPPF.
Comment
Jack Pringle, RIBA board chair
Meanwhile Gove singled out growth area Cambridge as a special case, pointing to its bespoke plan to build more than 150,000 new homes under changes to the planning process.
We look forward to seeing further detail on today’s announcements and will continue to work with the government to deliver homes and places in which people can thrive. Our planning system is an impediment to badly needed development at local, national and infrastructure levels. We need to move to a simpler, faster planning system with more predictable outcomes.
منبع
Speaking on Tuesday (19 December) at the RIBA headquarters at 66 Portland Place, the secretary of state for Development, Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLHUC) outlined several changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
Gove said the new NPPF would speed up the planning process and ultimately boost the number of homes built. The government has previously been accused of abandoning or watering down its national 300,000 homes-a-year target and local housing targets amid disagreement in the Conservative Party..
Labour leader Keir Starmer has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the next Parliament, if elected, along with the next generation of ‘new towns’ and the recruitment of 300 more planners under reforms outlined at this October’s Labour Party conference.
‘I believe it does make it [planning] simpler,’ said Gove. ‘I believe the outcomes should be more predictable. I believe that the incentive that we’ve created, to have plans in place but also the penalty if plans are not in place, will concentrate minds effectively.’
‘Often objections to developments are about concerns of a lack of infrastructure – are there enough schools, GPs, parks, and recreation spaces to help support the residents of new homes? The Secretary of State didn’t spell out any plans to bring forward this investment in local services and amenities or how it would be paid for.’
Today’s focus on ensuring that we build more new homes, alongside the infrastructure needed to sustain our communities, is to be applauded. New measures to tackle delays in the planning process and ensure that local authorities have clear plans in place are long overdue.
Issuing a statement in response, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said the city had ‘outbuilt the rest of the country since Sadiq took office in 2016 and housing completions in London in recent years are at the highest level since the 1930s, with the highest council homebuilding since the 1970s.
The RIBA previously questioned the government’s proposed changes to the NPPF in its official response to the consultation in March, when it said removing housing targets would not help reach 300,000 homes a year.
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