Following the announcement of Rishi Sunak’s 2020 Budget on 11 March (which includes significant investments that have been welcomed by the housing sector), the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, spoke to Parliament yesterday about his ambitious proposals to modernise the country’s planning system.

Jenrick announced that Government will bring forward an ambitious planning White Paper in the spring, stating “the purpose is to create a planning system that is truly fit for the 21st century—a planning system that supports the delivery of the number of homes we need as a country, but homes that local people want to live in, with more beautiful, safer and greener communities.”

What this means for the future of planning

The Government intends to:

• review the formula for calculating local housing need, which means not only building more homes, but also encouraging greater building in urban areas
• make the most of transport hubs—with a call for proposals to invite innovative solutions for building housing above and around stations
• back brownfield sites for development, and will begin by investing £400 million to regenerate brownfield sites across the country—plus they will launch a new national brownfield sites map so that everyone can understand where those sites are
• adopt a dramatically accelerated planning system, with an aim to having a digital planning system which is easier for local communities to get involved with as well as shortening and simplifying the plan-making process
• reform planning fees and link them to performance
• take action regarding local plans—in order to progress the delivery of new homes, local authorities will have a deadline of December 2023 to get their local plans in place, if they fail to meet this deadline the Government will have to intervene
• introduce more planning freedoms, including:
  
  • encouraging local communities to take routes to meet housing needs in their areas
  • the freedom to build upwards on existing buildings
  • a new right to allow vacant, commercial, industrial and residential blocks to be demolished and replaced with well-designed, new residential units that meet high-quality standards.

Affordable housing

The Government are currently finalising details for the next Affordable Homes Programme, worth £12 billion, which will deliver homes for social rent as well as for affordable rent, shared ownership and supported housing from 2021/22, with the ultimate aim to offer a route to home ownership for all, regardless of the tenure.

Investment in the sector

The Government has recognised that, in order to meet significant demand for housing, they need to deliver at scale and at pace by providing serious additional investment. The £12 billion announced by Sunak for affordable homes represents the biggest cash investment in the sector for a decade, and Jenrick confirmed that “we are taking an infrastructure-first approach and yesterday £1.1 billion was allocated to build new communities and unlock 70,000 new homes in total. That is more than £4 billion invested through the housing infrastructure fund. Building on that, we will introduce a new long-term flexible single housing infrastructure fund of at least £10 billion.”

Building standards

Not only is it a case of building more homes but the Government would like to see a higher standard and quality of build. In order to make this happen, the Government will be updating the national planning policy framework to embed the principles of good design and place making.

Key takeaways

It is clear that Government want to support people who are working hard to own their own home, and ensure that young people have the same opportunities. The proportion of young homeowners has increased, however many are trapped paying high rents and struggling to save for a deposit—many people will continue to be priced out if more homes are not built.

Radical change needs to happen to overhaul the planning system to ensure that it enables more homes to come forward in the places that people most want to live, with jobs, transport links and other amenities on their doorstep.

You can read the Government’s policy paper on Planning for the Future in full here. Watch out for further updates from Capsticks once the planning White Paper is released later in the spring. For further information in the meantime about how the 2020 Budget and Planning Reforms will impact your organisation, please speak to Suzanne Smith or Chimi Shakohoxha.