The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has just released a new report on Planning for new homes. Below is a summary of the key findings.
Strategic planning for new homes
The Department has an ambition to support the delivery of 300,000 new homes per year from the mid-2020s. The ambition was announced in the 2017 budget, but with no detailed calculations supporting it, and is based on ‘net additions’, which includes new builds, conversions, changes of use and demolitions. The average number of new homes each year between 2005-06 and 2017-18 was 177,000 per year and has never exceeded 224,000. However, the number of new homes has increased every year since 2012-13, with 222,000 new homes in 2017-18.
Producing local plans
Local authorities have struggled to produce up-to-date local plans. As of December 2018, only 44.1% of local authorities had an up-to-date local plan (a plan less than five years old) that sets out their strategies for meeting the need for new homes. However, as of November 2018, the Department had only challenged 15 local authorities that do not have an up-to-date plan. If a local authority does not show it has a five-year supply of land for housing, it gives developers greater freedom to build where they want, and a local authority therefore has less control over the location of development.
The Department’s standard method for assessing the need for new homes needs to be revised. The current standard method is based on projections of the growth in the numbers of households, adjusted for the affordability of housing in local areas. However, it is now thought that this will not result in 300,000 new homes being built each year so the method will be revised.
Local authorities in the East of England, South West and South East will need to support the delivery of 15%, 6% and 5% more new homes respectively, mainly by identifying more land for new homes. However, it added that London faces the greatest challenge. The Mayor has assessed that around 66,000 new homes are needed in London each year but in 2017-18, just 31,723 new homes were built in the capital.
