The Government has reaffirmed its policy concerning the long-term housing plan which it hopes will “ … deliver homes in the areas that need and want them most – such as big cities…” whilst protecting the countryside and green belt.
Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has recently affirmed direction and announced new consultations which aims include:
- Prioritisation of brownfield developments in urban developments, where “… there is highest demand and existing infrastructure to support new development” and
- Reducing bureaucracy and being more flexible in applying restrictive policies on brownfield sites.
Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in England’s 20 largest cities and towns will be required to apply a brownfield presumption if housebuilding drops below expected levels. One of our partners, Angela Brooks, who heads our strategic planning team said: “A presumption in favour of development on brownfield sites is welcomed, but it is certainly nothing new to planning. There has always been an emphasis on the development of brownfield or previously developed land.
“The ‘brownfield presumption’, whilst supported as a general principle, will not address the issue of a significant number of homes required across the country, as the redevelopment of many brownfield sites are subject to significant viability issues and are therefore difficult to bring forward.
“This new initiative would deliver limited contributions to the supply of housing, whilst the significant challenge of increasing housing and affordable housing supply will persist. More needs to be done than simple tweaks such as this."
The Government has introduced legislation that will come into force on 5 March 2024 to extend Permitted Development Rights (PDR) to allow commercial buildings of any size, to be repurposed and converted into new homes. This also removes the vacancy requirement.
Consultations have also been launched: one is about strengthening the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to support brownfield development. This consultation will run until 26 March 2024. The other consultation is the changes to permitted development rights, mainly for householders, which runs until 26 March 2024. This includes changes to increase the size of extensions, removing reference to exterior materials for extensions being similar, upward extensions on older buildings and streamlining prior approval for demolition and rebuilding as homes.
To ensure a targeted application of Article 4 directions and to support the use of Permitted Development Rights concerning the delivery of new homes, there have been recent modifications for Brent, Hillingdon and Three Rivers.
One of our associate partners, Scott O’Dell, who works in our general practice planning team said: “Extended permitted development rights create additional opportunities and I welcome the appropriate repurposing of buildings.
Wide-ranging Article 4 directions are a barrier to their use, however, it’s clear that the Government is keen to ensure Article 4 directions are targeted, with further modifications made. The residential re-use of commercial buildings can often raise concerns about quality and design, although planners and other built environment professionals do have a duty to encourage developers to look beyond ROI and also seek to deliver quality homes.”
The London Plan Review is a review of policies in the London Plan designed to facilitate an increase in the delivery of new homes on brownfield sites in the capital:
- The current plan sets a target of building 52,300 homes a year for the period 2019 – 2029, to meet an assessed need of 66,000 per annum
- After four years, there has been an undersupply of over 60,000 homes. If this trend continues, it is estimated that there will be a shortfall of 150,000 in London by the end of the 10-year planning period
- To meet the 10-year target, the delivery of new homes will have to be increased to 66,000 a year (for the next six years)
- The Greater London Authority (GLA) recently reported that only four LPAs have met their target
- The Review’s authors concluded: “For qualifying local planning authorities, there is a strong presumption in favour of granting planning permission for proposals which comprise or include residential development on Brownfield (Previously developed) land.”
- Qualifying LPAs are those where the net housing completions since 2019/20 have fallen below the cumulative annualised total of their ten-year target. The presumption does not apply to sites which are in the Green Belt, Metropolitan Open Land or a Strategic Industrial Location.
See Scott’s other commentary Better use of building, delivering homes for all? following Gove’s long-term plan for housing.
