Overhauled National Planning Policy Framework Arrives
The Government has today published its widely anticipated update to the National Planning Policy Framework (the NPPF), following consultations made earlier in the year.
Upon the release of the revised NPPF, the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Angela Rayner, said “the reforms will sweep away last year’s damaging changes and shake up a broken planning system, which caves into the blockers and obstructs the builders”.
The Government aims to unlock the planning system and build 1.5 million new homes in the next 5 years. Revising the NPPF is their first step forward in this regard.
The NPPF is the key piece of national planning policy in England, which guides decisions made across the country by Local Planning Authorities.
The new NPPF brings a swathe of revisions, Councils across the country are required to make sure their Local Plans are compliant with the new NPPF within a 12 week period, prior to the 12th March 2025.
Mandatory housing targets make an immediate return in a bid to ramp up housebuilding and deliver growth across the country. House building targets for those areas that suffer from the most significant housing unaffordability issues will likely face the largest increases in required numbers, which are often rural areas (due to generally higher house prices).
Greenbelt land has also been in the Government’s spotlight. “Greybelt” land now gets its’ own formal definition in the new NPPF, being land in the Greenbelt that has previously been developed, or any other parcel of Greenbelt land that does not deliver the key objectives of a Greenbelt designation in the first place. Greybelt land is to be treated as potential land for development under the new NPPF.
There will be a new set of “golden rules” in the NPPF relating to development in the Greenbelt, one of which will require a higher than usual proportion of affordable housing. Whilst this looks appetising on the surface for communities living in high house price areas, there are likely to be knock on impacts for developers in terms of the viability of delivering sites in these areas, with affordable housing generating significantly less revenue than market housing. Developer margins are already under pressure following substantial increases in materials and labour costs since the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The NPPF will also require Councils to undertake a review of their Greenbelt designations to meet these targets, and ensure these designated areas are fit for purpose.
The proof will be in the pudding as to how effective these measures will actually be in increasing housing delivery across the country. You probably wouldn’t be criticised too harshly if you thought that there were larger issues inherent in the planning system that were frustrating housebuilders from getting consents to deliver housing. After all, developers are trying their hardest, and spending vast sums of money, to get planning consents and deliver housing, but still suffer a refusal at Planning Committee, often despite meeting all policy requirements and even getting a recommendation for approval by a suitably qualified planning officer. Indeed, there is an ongoing consultation on modernising the planning application decision making process in this country in this regard, the outcome of which will be very interesting.
Whilst these NPPF revisions will be welcomed by those looking to deliver new homes across England, whether this overhaul is sufficient to ‘unlock’ enough land for the ambitious housing targets set by the Government remains to be seen.
