Gove announces league tables to expose underperforming local planning authorities in NPPF speech

Councils behind on delivering their local plan will be highlighted in public league tables, and local authorities that refuse planning applications against officer advice need to be "called out", Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove warned in a speech announcing the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) today.

Speaking at the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Secretary of State for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) also announced he had issued directions to seven councils over the delayed adoption of local plans.

On plans to create a league table of local planning authorities, Gove said: "I will make sure that every local authority is held to account for delivery against its plan – for the speed with which planning applications are processed and also the rationality of their decision making.

"At the Department of Education, I saw that nothing so concentrated the mind of system leaders as sharper accountability, rigorous inspection, robust league tables."

The tables will detail the speed with which councils respond to applications, the level of approvals, and their delivery against targets.

Regarding the seven authorities that have been issued with directions – St Albans, Amber Valley, Ashfield, Medway, Uttlesford, Basildon and Castle Point – Gove said they must now provide a planning timetable within 12 weeks or face further intervention from the DLUHC.

He said he expects all local authorities to make sure they have a timetable for an up-to-date plan in place within the same timeframe, with a copy provided to the DLUHC.

He also designated Chorley and Fareham district councils for "poor quality decision making", adding that he will review the current criteria and thresholds for designations to ensure councils are not being "let off the hook".

On calculating housing need and targets, Gove said: "It has always been the case that this number was supposed to be advisory for local authorities but that principle has more often been honoured in the breach than in the observance.

"Those local authorities that have sought to vary the number in order to take account of the need to protect the Green Belt or other areas of environmental heritage or aesthetic importance have found the planning inspectorate invincibly attached to the number first thought of with only very few exceptions.

"The new NPPF now more clearly upholds the spirit of the original intention. Local authorities have the comfort of knowing that they need not redraw the Green Belt or sacrifice protected landscapes to meet housing numbers.

But he said the emphasis on targets being 'advisory' in the new NPPF was not a "route to the evasion of responsibilities".

He said: "Local authorities must provide rigorous evidence justifying their departure from assessed housing need. They must do everything to identify other lands suitable for development, and while the Planning Inspectorate will respect well-made cases, it will not accept undershooting that's not firmly rooted in environmental or other safeguards."

Elsewhere, Gove stated that councils must be "called out" in cases where the planning committee overturns a planning officer's recommendations for approval of new development even when the proposal is in line with the local plan and its policies.

"When that happens, the developer understandably appeals the judgment and almost invariably wins," Gove said.

"The LA will end up paying costs, diverting council tax money away from vital services."

To tackle this, Gove announced that the DLUHC will publish the details of which local authorities are "most promiscuously rejecting planning applications against officer's advice - and we will make transparent the amount that it is costing the local council tax payers".

He highlighted decisions at Waverley Borough Council, claiming it has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds defending its rejections of "appropriate development".

"The cases that they lose again and again are money down the drain for local people, and such behaviour needs to be called out," he said.

Gove went on to hit out at councils that delay processing planning applications, specifically those that use so-called 'extension of time agreements', which he described as "an insistence on delays to slow down the system".

Taking these agreements out of figures in the two years to September 2023, only 9% of councils determined 70% or more of non-major applications within the statutory eight-week period, Gove said.

On major applications, "it's even worse," Gove claimed, with 1% of councils managing to get through at least 60% of applications within the statutory 13-week period.

He said the Department will identify those who are "hiding behind these agreements to mask their dilatoriness", noting that he plans to consult on banning their use for householder applications, limiting when in the process they can apply and prohibiting repeat extension of time agreements.

A three-month review of the statutory consultation system was also announced by Gove, which will consider whether the current group of consultees is right, if the performance reporting is effective and whether the absence of a reply within an appropriate timeline "should be treated as a green light rather than a red one".

Gove said that the DLUHC will seek to act on any recommendations made by Sam Richards, who has been appointed to lead the review, in the new year.

During his speech and in a letter, the Secretary of State also issued a direct warning to Sadiq Khan over housing delivery in the capital.

He said he is considering intervening in London over figures that show 38,000 net homes were delivered per year over the last three years in London, which is 15,000 fewer homes every year than the target set out in the London Plan.

He said it has become evident that "changes to the London Plan itself are needed" in order to build more homes.

As a result, he has asked Christopher Katkowski KC, Cllr James Jamieson, Paul Monaghan and Dr Wei Yang to review the London plan and identify where changes to policy could speed up the delivery of homes.

"They will report to me early next year, and I hope we can agree on a plan for reform and delivery with the mayor, but if not, I reserve the right to intervene," Gove said.

Elsewhere, Gove announced that the Government will look to speed up national infrastructure projects. As part of this, he announced that the DLUHC will see to tackle "uncertainty in the system that flows from judicial reviews, knowing that even unsuccessful challenges can delay a project for years".

The revised NPPF can be found here.

Responding to the Secretary of State’s speech, Cllr Darren Rodwell, housing spokesperson for the Local Government Association, said: “People want their local area to have high-quality affordable homes built in the right places, supported by the right infrastructure, and councils stand ready to help government tackle local housing challenges.

“This is best achieved through a local planning system with public participation at its heart. So we are pleased government has confirmed that housing targets will become an advisory starting point which will take into account local circumstances.”

Cllr Rodwell added: "The reality is that planning is not a barrier to house building. Nine in 10 planning applications are approved by councils, despite significant resourcing and capacity issues across the country.

“In order to help increase the speed of local plan-making and housing delivery, we urge the Government to bring forward consultations on a revised National Planning Policy Framework and National Development Management Policies which will form the backbone of a new style of plan-making due in Autumn 2024.”

Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee, said: “We have a national shortage of housing in England but the Secretary of State’s speech today didn’t provide clarity on how we are to achieve the national housing target of building 300,000 net new homes per year by the mid-2020s. For all the talk of getting tough with local authorities, without mandatory local housing targets, it’s not clear how many houses will need to be built in local areas to deliver the national target.

“Often objections to developments are about concerns of a lack of infrastructure – are there enough schools, GPs, parks, and recreation spaces to help support the residents of new homes? The Secretary of State didn’t spell out any plans to bring forward this investment in local services and amenities or how it would be paid for.”

Betts added: “The 35% urban uplift figure is apparently arbitrary, not calculated based on local housing need in the areas where it applies, and the Government has failed to take the opportunity today to spell out how this will deliver more housing.

“Councils are hit by a range of financial pressures and there is a pressing need for additional resources for local planning authorities to ensure the planning system works efficiently. The Government must ensure local planning authorities have the investment and specialist skills to help speed up the planning process.”

A District Councils’ Network (DCN) spokesperson said: "It is good news that councils with an up-to-date local plan will no longer have to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. This will cut bureaucracy for local councils who know which areas are suitable for development and will reduce inappropriate developments being forced on communities against local wishes.

“While it is right that planning authorities are accountable for their performance, we are sceptical about the introduction of league tables, which can often be misleading because not all factors are within an authority’s control and they don’t take into account the different challenges each council faces."

The DCN added: “All councils want to deliver the right new homes for their communities. The best way to do that is to have a robust and sustainable local plan. There are many reasons why it can be hard to implement a local plan as quickly as the Local Planning Authority would like. Intervention by central government should be a last resort when it is demonstrably clear that a delay in putting the local plan in place is entirely due to factors within the authority’s control.

“We are concerned that the new NPPF will make it harder for planning committees to block developments that have been ‘approved in principle’ by officers. We feel strongly that this undermines the democratic, plan-led process, which involves local councillors and officers using their collective expertise to assess the evidence to make decisions that deliver for their local communities."

Kate Henderson, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said: “Millions of people in communities across England are affected by the housing emergency, and today’s changes risk further undermining the country’s ability to build the homes we desperately need.

“These changes, which effectively relax local housing targets, will result in fewer homes; and measures to get councils building and approving applications, whilst positive, won't be enough to offset this risk. We're concerned measures to protect the greenbelt at any cost will prevent otherwise sustainable developments, close to existing communities, from being built. Some greenbelt land is of low quality and limited value and includes car parks and petrol stations. Given the chronic shortage of homes in England, it makes sense to use this land to deliver new homes, whilst protecting the parts of the green belt that are more valuable to our environment.”

Henderson added: “Our research shows that, without urgent action, by the end of the next parliament nearly five million households will be living in unaffordable homes and 150,000 children will be facing homelessness. To solve the housing crisis, this short-term, piecemeal approach to housing policy and planning must end. As we head towards the election, we need all political parties to commit to a properly funded, nationally coordinated long-term housing plan that aims to transform the health, economic security, and life chances of millions.”

Adam Carey