Councils to face “lengthier and more costly” local plans under proposed NPPF changes, district council argues

Key measures in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ consultation, Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to national planning policy (which only applies to England), include:

• Removal of the requirement for local authorities with an up-to-date plan to demonstrate continually a deliverable 5-year housing land supply.
• Removal of the 5-year housing land supply buffers (of 5%, 10% or 20%) from national planning policy in the future.
• The position on oversupply to be brought in line with that on undersupply, when calculating a 5-year housing land supply.
• Additional protections for neighbourhood plans in circumstances where a local planning authority’s policies for the area covered by the neighbourhood plan are out-of-date. This includes a proposal to extend protection to neighbourhood plans that are up to 5 years old instead of the current 2 years.
  It will be made clearer in the NPPF that the outcome of the standard method is an advisory starting-point to inform plan-making – “a guide that is not mandatory”.
• More explicit indications will be given in planning guidance of the types of local characteristics which may justify the use of an alternative method.
• It will be made clear that if housing need can be met only by building at densities which would be significantly out-of-character with the existing area (taking into account the principles in local design guides or codes), this may be an adverse impact which could outweigh the benefits of meeting need in full.
• It will be made clear that local planning authorities are not required to review and alter green belt boundaries if this would be the only way of meeting need in full (although authorities would still have the ability to review and alter green belt boundaries if they wish, if they can demonstrate that exceptional circumstances exist).
• It will be made clear that authorities may take past ‘over-delivery’ into account, such that if permissions that have been granted exceed the provision made in the existing plan, that surplus may be deducted from what needs to be provided in the new plan.
• The tests of ‘soundness’ through which plans are examined will be amended and simplified, so that they are no longer required to be ‘justified’. Instead, the examination would assess whether the local planning authority’s proposed target meets need so far as possible, takes into account other policies in the Framework, and will be effective and deliverable.
• The changes to the test of soundness will not apply to plans that have reached pre-submission consultation stage, plans that reach that stage within 3 months of the introduction of this policy change, or plans that have been submitted for independent examination.
• The government intends to maintain the “urban uplift” amended in 2020 and to require that this is, so far as possible, met by the towns and cities concerned rather than exported to surrounding areas. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will remove the Duty to Co-operate, although it will remain in place until those provisions come into effect.
• An additional permissions-based test will be added to the current Housing Delivery Test. This will ‘switch off’ the application of ‘the presumption’ in favour of sustainable development as a consequence of under-delivery, where a local planning authority can demonstrate that there are ‘sufficient’ deliverable permissions to meet the housing requirement set out in its local plan. The LPA will need to have permitted 115% of its local housing need for the switch off to apply.
• The NPPF will be changed to make clear that local planning authorities should give greater importance in planning for Social Rent homes, when addressing their overall housing requirements in their development plan and making planning decisions.
• The government will explore whether past irresponsible planning behaviour should be taken into account when applying for planning permission. The consultation sets out two potential ways in which this might be done, by either: making such behaviour a material consideration when local planning authorities determine planning applications; or allowing local planning authorities to decline to determine applications submitted by applicants who have a demonstrated track record of past irresponsible behaviour prior to the application being considered on its planning merits.
• Three further measures will be introduced, via changes to national planning policy, to help incentivise developers to build out more quickly. These are: publishing data on developers of sites over a certain size in cases where they fail to build out according to their commitments; requiring developers to explain how they propose to increase the diversity of housing tenures to maximise a development scheme’s absorption rate; the NPPF will highlight that delivery can be a material consideration in planning applications.
• The NPPF will be changed to emphasise the role of beauty and placemaking in strategic policies. A stronger link will be made between good design and beauty.
• The Framework will be amended to encourage local planning authorities to consider how they can ensure that planning conditions associated with applications reference clear and accurate plans and drawings which provide visual clarity about the design of development, as well as clear conditions about the use of materials where appropriate, so they can be referred to as part of the enforcement process.
• Further measures on: delivering biodiversity net gain and local nature recovery; recognising the food production value of farmland; climate change mitigation: exploring a form of carbon assessment; climate adaptation and flood-risk management; onshore wind and energy efficiency.
• Plan makers are to be given 30 June 2025 to submit their local plans, neighbourhood plans, minerals and waste plans, and spatial development strategies for independent examination under the existing legal framework; this will mean that existing legal requirements and duties, for example the Duty to Cooperate, will still apply. There is also a proposal that all independent examinations of local plans, minerals and waste plans and spatial development strategies must be concluded, with plans adopted, by 31 December 2026.
• Proposals for the scope and principles behind National Development Management Policies, which, amongst other things, are intended to help local authorities produce swifter, slimmer plans by removing the need to set out generic issues of national importance such as policies for protecting the green belt.