Savills : NPPF Potential Implications arising for the Planning System in England – Savills reaction

The publication comes one year after the draft was issued for consultation in December 2022; two Christmas presents for the price of one.

As widely anticipated, the new NPPF seeks to ensure that local plans are produced more quickly and in a form that meets housing and other development needs. In addition, there is a stronger emphasis on building beautiful with local planning authorities (LPAs) having greater power to scrutinise proposals based on their design characteristics, for example whether a design is too intensive and therefore out of character with the local area.

In terms of addressing housing need, the Standard Method for determining Local Housing Need remains an 'advisory starting point' for calculating the housing requirement for an area, as it has been in previous versions of the NPPF. However, the scope of the 'exceptional circumstances' required for LPAs to deviate from the Method is given greater definition, including the particular 'demographic characteristics' of an area. Importantly, reference to the approach needing to reflect current and future demographic trends and market signals is retained.

There will be no absolute requirement for LPAs to redraw Green Belt boundaries when local plans are reviewed. Though, as before, LPAs can choose to review Green Belt boundaries in exceptional circumstances when producing a local plan. The presence of Green Belt and its effect on land supply is revealed in Savills Research, which shows that of the 24 English local authorities whose area is more than 70% Green Belt, only 33% have published a housing land supply figure above the required five years. Notably 67% of those authorities are in the South East or East of England where development needs are at their greatest. Savills has recently assessed overall housing delivery against need, which highlights the scale of the issue.

In his presentation, the Secretary of State stated that the NPPF is not a charter to evade the responsibility to address housing needs - local authorities will need to demonstrate that they have done everything that they can to meet this need This will no doubt be a matter of intense focus during local plan examinations, noting the tests of soundness remain the same. To demonstrate the drive to produce plans more quickly, the government has written to seven local authorities who have not submitted a local plan for examination since 2004 directing them to revise their local plan timetable and submit it to the Secretary of State in the next 12 weeks for approval.

The Housing Delivery Test (HDT) has been changed such that where delivery falls below 85% of the requirement over 3 years then a buffer of 20% should apply. Where delivery falls below 75% over the previous 3 years, the presumption in favour of development applies. Updated HDT figures (2022) have been published by the government alongside the NPPF.

In respect of measuring supply, LPAs also, no longer need to specifically identify five years of deliverable housing sites if their local plan is less than five years old and identified five years of supply on adoption. Savills Research indicates that 92 LPAs have a local plan which has been adopted in the last 5 years, leaving a majority, over 70% with older plans. In addition, 60 LPAs are currently at a draft (Reg 18 or Reg 19) stage, which would now mean a four-year housing supply applies in those locations. Reaching these stages of the plan-making will therefore ease the pressure on LPAs to maintain supply, which should incentivise LPAs to at least get the early stages of the process completed.

The Secretary of State also announced his intention to intervene directly to the London Plan - to boost the capital's housing supply. The needs of London stand at circa 90,000 dpa against a London Plan target of 52,000 and latest delivery figures of 35,300. Evidently, to achieve an overall target of 300,000 new homes in England will require a substantial increase in delivery in the capital. Simply stated, if London fails the Government will not achieve its national target.

Aside from the detail of the changes, it is worth remembering that the NPPF emerged as a measure to achieve a more consolidated and streamlined planning system. However, in streamlining the process, its pivotal relevance to both plan making and decision taking has meant increased reliance on its content. Uncertainty over national policy therefore creates widespread delays in the planning process as we have experienced over this recent period. This period of reform has now lasted over 3 years, from the point at which the then Prime Minster announced the intention to 'build, build, build'. More immediately since the publication of the draft NPPF, 12 months ago, over 50 local plans have been paused and this month across the country the only local plan examination in active progress is in Dover.

The latest state of play on local plan production indicates the significance of the problem, as highlighted in Savills June research.

Savills will provide more detailed analysis of the NPPF in the New Year.