Housing White Paper: Government pledges intervention where local plans not up to date

Not enough local authorities planning for the homes that they need is one of three factors contributing to England's "broken" housing system, according to a 'white paper' on housing policy published by the government. It intends to address this by making local plans easier to produce and more accessible, while at the same time "intervening where necessary" to ensure that every community has an appropriate housing plan in place.

The government also intends to introduce a "more standardised approach" to assessing five-year housing requirements, which LPAs will be encouraged to use and which will be relied upon in the absence of an up-to-date plan. It intends to apply this new approach from April 2018, although local authorities will be given more time to adapt if they are "collaborating on ambitious proposals for new homes", according to the paper. LPAs will only be permitted to deviate from the standardised approach if they can provide a "reasonable justification" for doing so.

"The government is proposing to take a strict view in relation to LPAs that fail to have an up to date and sufficiently ambitious local plan in place," said planning law expert Elizabeth Wiseman of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "Perhaps this is not surprising since it has identified the lack of LPAs planning for the homes that they need as a key reason why the housing market is failing, and the fact that 40% of LPAs do not have a plan that meets the projected housing growth in their area."

"Once again the government has said that when necessary it will intervene to ensure that plans are put in place. However, whether this will encourage LPAs to speed up the plan-making process remains to be seen. Certainly, previous government pledges to intervene where LPAs have not made sufficient progress on local plans does not seem to have concerned a number of LPAs that have recently delayed work on their plans. However, commentators have reported an increase in plan-making since the government has threatened intervention. Whether the proposed threat by the government has any effect will depend on whether it has teeth," she said.

As part of its ambition that every local area is covered by a local plan, the government will no longer expect that every area should be covered by a single plan. Each area will be required to plan for specified "strategic priorities", but will be given more flexibility over how they must do so. At the same time, the tests for assessing whether an individual plan is 'sound' will be made more flexible, while the evidence required in support of a draft plan will be made less strict.

The government also intends to review the consultation and examination procedures that apply to the plan-making process to ensure that they are "proportionate", and to improve the use of digital tools to make plans and planning data more accessible. In return for these improvements, local authorities will be expected to "hold up their end of the bargain" or risk government intervention, the paper said.

"If the government can have success in removing some of the expense and bureaucracy in relation to producing local plans then perhaps the threat of intervention will not be required," said Wiseman. "However, whether the government can achieve an easier route to an adopted local plan is not clear and will certainly require a change in attitude from some local planning authorities."

A new 'housing delivery test' will be introduced, by which local authorities and other interests will be held accountable for ensuring new homes are delivered in their area. This test will "highlight whether the number of homes being built is below target, provide a mechanism for establishing the reasons why, and where necessary trigger policy responses that will ensure that further land comes forward", according to the paper.

The government has proposed that LPAs be required to publish an 'action plan' setting out the actions that they need to take to get home-building back on track if, after November 2017, housing delivery falls below 95% of the LPA's annual housing requirement. If delivery falls below 85%, the LPA will also be required to plan for a 20% buffer on their five-year land supply if it has not already done so.

After November 2018, a presumption in favour of sustainable development will automatically apply where delivery of housing falls below 25% of an LPA's housing requirement, placing additional emphasis on the need for planning permission to be granted unless there are strong reasons not to. This target will increase to 45% from November 2019, and to 65% from November 2020, according to the white paper.

Planning law expert Lucy Close of Pinsent Masons said that the new housing delivery test should "incentivise" LPAs to make sure that they deliver new housing in line with local requirements.

"What is interesting is that the white paper sets out the punishments for under-delivery, but also the first stage of the approach is to prepare an action plan which should set out the reasons for under-delivery and actions needed to get back on track," she said. "This will hopefully require LPAs to be self-critical – however, it is not clear what will happen if such a plan is not prepared or if it is inadequate."

Planning Law expert Richard Ford of Pinsent Masons said that the proposed changes were in line with the March 2016 recommendations of the Local Plan Expert Group..

"A really key change in the white paper is this introduction of a standardised approach to calculating the baseline for the five-year housing supply, due to come in by April 2018 for areas where there is no up to date local plan or strategic plan, unless the Secretary of State agrees otherwise with authorities who are 'collaborating on ambitious proposals for new homes'," he said. "That will make a huge difference to arguments in planning applications and appeals."

"The consultation on the detail of this change will no doubt come under particular scrutiny given the different methodologies currently used," he said.