A Planning and Infrastructure Bill is now close to achieving Royal Assent. Alongside changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, various planning working papers, the consultation on a new Land Use Framework this is quite a significant output for the government’s first 18 months year, but will it have the desired effect of delivering housing and growth?

I have long argued that what is needed is a national plan - one that removes short-term politics from the equation and allows professionals to lead a coherent, long-term development strategy. For years, housing delivery has been hindered by the tension between national targets and local opposition.

This would set out a clear framework for where and how development should take place, ensuring that housing, infrastructure, and economic growth are planned in a coordinated manner. Such an approach would offer several key benefits: it would give the private sector greater confidence to invest in housing and infrastructure projects, reducing the risk (and costs) associated with navigating a fragmented and politically volatile planning system; better align housing and associated infrastructure; depoliticise planning, and address regional disparities.

The government has recently consulted on a Land Use Framework, to be published later this year. Its contents will include the principles that government will apply to policy with land use implications; a description of how policy levers will develop and adapt to support land use change; a release of land use data and analysis to support public and private sector innovation in spatial decision making, and the development of tools to support land managers in practice.