BUDGET 2016: Substantial reform of local plans is needed if the UK is to meet and deliver its housing needs, that was the finding of a report from the Local Plans Expert Group.
LPEG, set up by communities secretary Greg Clark and planning minister Brandon Lewis in September last year, delivered a report on how to make local plans more efficient and effective during the Budget speech.
The National Planning Policy Framework states that local plans are the key to delivering sustainable development, but currently less than a third of the country has an up-to-date plan in place.
LPEG’s report identifies three main problems:
- Local authorities are struggling to meet the requirements of a complex local plan process
- Housing needs are not met
- Communities are turned off by the length, slow pace, remote and obscure nature of many local plans.
It has put forward a number of recommendations and is calling for comments to be made by 27 April.
The recommendations include:
- Reducing and dramatically simplifying the evidence base required for plan making
- Clarifying the role of local plan as a strategic plan for communities
- Timetable plan making with regulations requiring a maximum of two years from the first community engagement to final adoption
- Early MOTs of emerging plans and staged examinations
- Clear guidance on the key issues that hamper local plan making
- A national concordat with statutory bodies to support a streamlined local plans system
- Limiting the life of pre-NPPF local plans
- A single clear and simplified approach to calculating housing need
- A standard calculation of five year supply that is monitored annually and signed off
- Automatic release of additional plan-led sites if monitoring shows that housing requirements are not being delivered
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “The recommendations for faster and simpler plan making with less scope for debate, when combined with an effective duty to co-operate and a limited life span for pre-NPPF plans should be a recipe for a more efficient system for all.”
John Rhodes, chair of the LPEG and director of planning specialist Quod, added: “Local plans are central to the operation of an effective planning system. Our report shows that substantial reform is necessary but also possible.
“If our recommendations are accepted as a package, we strongly believe that all those with an interest in local plans – communities, local authorities and developers – can look forward to a faster, fairer and more including plan-making process which delivers the development the country needs.”
• Click here to read the full report.
• To send feedback, e-mail Samantha.McClary@estatesgazette.com or tweet @Samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
