ALT EXAMPLE - MAGAZINE - PORTFOLIO - Flipbook - Página 70
COMMENT
gettiNg the
NumBers
All wroNg?
By Mark Ketley, Director of BH Planning and Design
Following the introduction of a raft of changes to permitted development legislation earlier
this year aimed at keeping the economy moving during the Covid-19 pandemic, the
Government published two consultation documents setting out its proposed longer term
fundamental changes to the planning system. In the words of Boris, the proposals set out
in the “White Paper: Planning for the Future” and “Changes to the Current Planning
System” consultation documents will address the artificial constraints that are being placed
on our potential as a nation by a relic of the mid-20th century.
he White Paper has been hailed
as a radical change to an
outdated and ineective
planning system and there are
indeed some big changes being
proposed including the concept
of zonal planning, removal of obligations
and Community Infrastructure Levy, and
the achievement of beautiful design
amongst other things. However, it is the
proposed changes to the Government’s
Standard Method for calculating the
housing need for each Local Authority
area that has really got everyone in the
industry talking.
Housing dominates the world of
planning in this country with it accounting
for the vast majority of site allocations,
planning applications and appeals. In the
context of a seemingly never-ending
t
70
national housing crisis therefore, it is the
case that the planning system is critical to
solving the acute housing shortage that
we have been witnessing for many years.
Ever since the Government published
the National Planning Policy Framework
(NPPF) in March 2012 we have heard
about the need for Local Authorities to
signicantly boost housing supply through
policy-making and decision-taking. In
recent years this has worked well to some
extent with average housing delivery
gures nationally jumping from around
170,000 new homes per year during the
early 2010’s to more than 240,000 last
year. This remains nowhere near enough
and, in the meantime, the housing crisis
has continued to deepen.
In response the Government is now
proposing signicant changes to the
Standard Method that will result in a
much bigger national need gure of
337,000 new homes per year as opposed
to the current gure of 264,000. This
change will likely take eect before the
end of this year with consultation on the
“Changes to the Current Planning
System” having recently ended. There are
already signicant concerns over the
impacts that the proposed changes to the
Standard Method will have however,
especially in northern areas of the country
with many of the additional 73,000 new
homes required each year being focussed
on the South.
Having a Standard Method for
calculating the housing need of each Local
PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE