On 19 December 2023, the Government published its?long-awaited revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (“NPPF”). It followed a year-long consultation period. The revised NPPF sets out the Government’s planning policies and how these will be applied.??
The biggest change is that the revised NPPF introduces various reforms to housing delivery. The revised NPPF also includes new text on protection from “out of character” residential development, Green Belt alterations, energy-efficient building improvements and allocation of agricultural land for development.?These changes will have implications for housebuilding and site promotions.?
The key changes are set out below:??
Changes to five-year housing land supply requirement??
- The revised NPPF removes the requirement on councils to demonstrate a rolling 5-year housing land supply if (a) their local plan is less than 5 years old and (b) the plan when adopted demonstrated a 5-year supply. Interestingly this is only relevant to planning applications submitted after 19 December 2023.??
- There is also a reduced requirement for some local authorities with an ‘in-progress’ Local Plan, i.e. where a Local Plan has been consulted on (under Regulation 18 or 19) or submitted for examination. If the local plan is more than 5 years old, but their new emerging local plan has reached the regulation 18 stage, the council will only need to demonstrate (and update annually) a 4-year supply. This particular change only applies for two years from the publication date, until 19 December 2025.?
- If a local authority cannot demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, then in the process of decision-making, the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies which means planning permission should be granted for sustainable development. This presumption (also known in shorthand as the “tilted balance”) changes the exercise of assessment that the decision-maker must carry out, and in general terms increases the prospect of planning permission being granted. These changes provide better protection to those authorities with up-to-date plans and are considered to act as an incentive for those without.??
- These changes point to the need to further emphasis on preparing and maintaining up-to-date plans as a priority, especially in meeting the objective of providing sufficient housing.??
Changes to the assessment of housing supply??
- Under the previous version of the NPPF, all local planning authorities were required to build a buffer of 5% (by default), 10% or 20% into their calculations on five-year housing land supply. In the revised NPPF, under para 79, the 5% and 10% buffers have been removed but the 20% buffer has been retained, where delivery falls below 85% of the requirement over the previous three years. Where the delivery falls below 75% of need: the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies in addition to a 20% buffer and action plan.???
Local Housing Needs Assessment?
- New text has been added to the NPPF at paragraph 60, clarifying that the overall aim of local authorities, in the context of delivering homes, should be to “meet as much of an area’s identified housing need as possible”.???
- More critically, under paragraph 61, the revised NPPF also provides confirmation that the standard methodology for housing needs is only an “advisory starting point” and so local authorities do not necessarily have to follow it when making their local plans.???
- The removal of housing targets for local authorities, one of the key principles of the planning system, will be extremely damaging to the delivery of new homes.??
- Notwithstanding these changes, the requirement to provide a robust justification for why deviation from the standard method figures is deemed essential still exists. This is likely to be closely scrutinised in Planning Examinations.??
- Para 145 of the revised NPPF removes the requirement for green belt boundaries to be reviewed or altered unless exceptional circumstances exist in which case any alteration should only be done through a plan-making process. The changes do not explicitly describe how Green Belt boundaries are expected to interface with housing supply and do not represent a substantive change to the policy position.??
Uplift of housing needs in certain cities??
- Para 62 of the new NPPF introduces a requirement that the uplift of housing needs in certain cities and urban centres should be met within those areas, rather than in neighbouring authorities.??
- For many LPAs, this change will likely lead to neighbouring authorities refusing to help accommodate unmet housing needs from cities however will increase pressure on the cities where demand is high.?
- Para 129 provides confirmation of how important it is not to build lower-density housing.???
- However, in para 130 it caveats by stating that in applying paragraphs 129a and b to existing urban areas, significant uplifts in the average density of residential development may be inappropriate if the resulting built form would be wholly out of character with the existing area. The effect of this change is to enable authorities to describe “out of character” circumstances in the process of preparing design codes and plan-making.?This may very well be applied to planning applications making it easier for the LPA to refuse planning schemes.?
Support for specific categories of housing??
- Retirement housing need assessment?– new paragraph 63 has been added to the revised NPPF which requires local authorities to assess a local need for retirement and care housing provision. Local authorities are then required to reflect this need in their policies. These changes reflect a specific concern identified by the Government; the consultation paper makes clear that they are prioritising sufficient housing supply for an ageing population, and in this context drafting has been included to explicitly and specifically support the provision of that housing.??
- Support for small sites?– under paragraph 70(b), the revised NPPF requires local authorities to support (through policies and in their decision making) small sites to come forward for community-led development for housing and self-build and custom-build housing. This reflects an objective of the Government to give greater confidence and certainty to small and medium sized builders, with a view to diversifying the housing market.?This is good news for small site promoters and developers.?
- Support for community-led development?– the revised NPPF provides that local authorities should support the development of exception sites for “community-led development” on sites that would not otherwise be suitable as rural exception sites.?This reflects the Government’s ambition to emphasise the role of community-led development, with a view to supporting locally-led housing.??
- Support for mansard extensions - The NPPF provides that authorities should “allow mansard roof extensions on suitable properties” where their external appearance “harmonises with the original building”. This reform will offer the ability to enable new housing by extending upwards as long as these extensions are in keeping with the local character and context, particularly in conservation areas.??
Energy efficiency of buildings??
- New paragraph 164 in the NPPF requires local authorities, in determining planning applications, to give “significant weight” to the need to support “energy efficiency and low carbon heating improvements” through the adaptation of buildings. This represents strong in-principle policy support for energy efficiency.??
- Paragraph 164 in the revised NPPF provides for heritage protection by stating that where the proposals would affect conservation areas, listed buildings or other relevant designated heritage assets, local planning authorities should also apply the relevant policies, set out in detail in Chapter 16 of the NPPF.??
Allocation of agricultural land for development??
Under paragraph 181, the revised NPPF requires local authorities to consider the availability of agricultural land used for food production when allocating sites for development. Where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.??
- ?This amendment means that the availability of land used for food production is now explicitly a part of that exercise.??
- Planning conditions on design and materials?– new paragraph 140 of the NPPF encourages planning authorities to use planning conditions to require clear and accurate drawings/details of a scheme’s design and materials. This is intended to provide greater certainty for those implementing planning permission on how to comply with the permission.??
- Integration of “beauty”?– the revised NPPF has “beauty” featured more strongly as a consideration across policy. However, it does not include details on how to assess beauty; this exercise will primarily be the role of design codes.??
- The primary effect of the changes to the NPPF will be to disapply the presumption in favour of sustainable development (or “tilted balance”) for a variety of local authorities, by not requiring them to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. The absence of the “tilted balance” will reduce the number of planning permissions which would otherwise be granted due to the lack of housing land supply.??
- The revised NPPF continues with its emphasis on beauty. These changes, including the introduction of a requirement to consider local character when planning for housing needs, give greater weight to the views of those existing residents who oppose new development.???
- Likewise, the rebranding of the standard method for meeting housing needs as "advisory" is likely to, according to Home Builders’ Federation, result in 77,000 fewer housing across England.?
- Several changes which were proposed in the consultation version of the NPPF have not been carried through into the final one. These include amending the ‘soundness’ test for the preparation of Local and that the past “irresponsible planning behaviour” by applicants could in future be taken into account when determining planning applications.??
- There are further consultations to follow including on climate change adaptation and flood-risk management, provision of social homes and electric vehicle charging points.??
- The government will be issuing guidance clarifying some aspects of the reforms.??
- Subject to a few limited exceptions, the changes take place immediately.??
