Despite having six years to act, new research finds that a quarter of Local Authorities have yet to submit a Local Plan.
And national planning and development consultancy Lichfields reports that more than half of the plans adopted under the 2012 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will need to reviewed within two years.
Its new research ‘Planned up and be counted: Local Plan-making since the NPPF 2012’ comes as the government’s transitional arrangements for plan making switch over on 24 January so that the July 2018 version of the NPPF will apply to future submitted Local Plans.
The new rules are designed to turbo-charge the plan making system to help meet the government’s ambitious target of 300,000 new homes a year by the mid 2020s.
Plan progress under the NPPF 2012 has been both patchy and slow, says Lichfields.
Its analysis of 221 Local Plans finds that only just over half (55%) of Local Planning Authorities have a sound, adopted post-NPPF 2012 plan.
Of these adopted plans, almost half (46%) required an increase in their housing requirement during their examination.
Lichfields find that examinations have speeded up since 2012. For plans submitted in 2016/17, the average time taken was 15 months, down from 22 months in 2014/15.
The examination of the Cambridgeshire Local Plans submitted in 2014 only concluded in 2018 after four and a half years.
The research assesses the likely impact of changes under the NPPF 2018, and considers the extent to which the introduction of measures such as the Standard Method for local housing need, statements of common ground, and viability at plan-making stage will support housebuilding by speeding up the process.
The 2018 Framework introduced the standard method for setting the minimum level of Local Housing Need (LHN) which will apply to all future Local Plans and will significantly change how local authorities approach housing need assessments, say Lichfields. The government’s recent consultation on changes to the method in response to recent ONS projections has created uncertainty, which still remains.
Of the 74 plans due for review by the beginning of 2021, 30 will see increases in the minimum LHN figure of more than 20%, while 32 plans will see decreases in minimum LHN totalling approximately 6,000 fewer dwellings per annum (dpa).
However, plans with predicted increases will see a minimum of 9,000 additional dpa.
Lichfields’ Senior Director Matthew Spry, said, “Our report shows that plan making under the NPPF 2012 has seen slow and patchy progress.
“The government is clear that to meet its ambition of building 3000,000 homes each year local authorities will need to deliver homes through a plan led system.
“The new 2018 NPPF – in action for plan making after today – combined with legal changes introduced over recent years, seeks to support a streamlined, more effective plan making system.
“But ongoing uncertainty over the minimum starting point for local housing need arising from the standard method has been an inauspicious start. While the challenge is clear, it remains to be seen whether practical plan making will improve.”
