Planning matters

All our Christmases came at once on 19 December when the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) not only published an updated NPPF but also its response to the December 2022 consultation on planning reform, the 2022 Housing Delivery Test results and a Written Ministerial Statement and accompanying speech by the Secretary of State, Michael Gove.

This blog focuses on the implications for plan-making specifically resulting from the above.

Significant amendments to the role and nature of local plan-making were first proposed in the Planning White Paper (2020). Since then, continuing uncertainty has resulted in a malaise in plan-making with significant associated social and economic costs (see our January and April 2023 blogs on this topic). The Secretary of State is clearly eager to see progress in plan-making, stating in the WMS that: ‘Too many local authorities have no up-to date plan, too many take too long to get their plan in place and too many plans do not deliver as they should.’

 

 

In the short-term the Secretary of State has indicated that the government will not hesitate to intervene where local planning authorities have failed to put a plan in place. The government has identified seven of the ‘worst’ authorities in terms of plan-making, which have not submitted a plan for examination since 2004: St Albans, Amber Valley, Ashfield, Basildon, Castle Point, Medway, and Uttlesford. These authorities are required to publish a plan timetable within 12 weeks of the publication of the new NPPF (i.e. by 12 March 2024). In a letter to each authority the Secretary of State cites each Council’s ‘persistent failure to adopt a plan’ and requests that they revise their Local Development Scheme in light of the NPPF changes and provide regular progress reports to DLUHC.

It is clear that the government is prepared to make interventions where authorities are not progressing with the plan-making process. To emphasise this point, a letter has been issued to West Berkshire Council which directs the Council not to take any step to withdraw its plan from examination, in response to the agenda for an extraordinary Council meeting on 19 December at which Members were to consider the withdrawal of the Local Plan.

The updated NPPF provides the clarity that some authorities have been waiting for ahead of progressing their plans, particularly those with significant areas of Green Belt. However, the deadline of 30 June 2025 for submission of plans under the current system is looming near on the horizon. For those authorities who are unable to meet this deadline there is still a level of uncertainty surrounding the new system of plan-making, and the role of National Development Management Policies (NDMPs), and therefore, a risk of delay in these authorities preparing updated plans.

 

The government has published details of the proposed new system of plan-making in both the December 2022 consultation and a further focused consultation in July 2023. Between these consultations and the government’s now-published response to the 2022 consultation, we now know about the new system:

 

In the July 2023 consultation the government sought views on a proposed phased roll-out of the new system, where a small cohort of around ten ‘front-runner’ authorities would prepare new-style local plans, potentially starting from Autumn 2024. Remaining authorities could be grouped into ‘waves’ by the date that they have most recently adopted a plan and allocated a 6-month plan-making commencement window.

Overall, the details of the new system are relatively high-level at this stage. We do not yet know, for example:

 

Until further information is published (expected in Autumn 2024), it is unclear how planning authorities should progress if, for example, their Local Plan was adopted c. 5 years ago and an update is now required, or if they commenced an update now under the current system but would be unlikely to meet the June 2025 deadline. In the absence of detailed guidance about the new system, planning authorities are likely to be hesitant to invest time and resources into work which could ultimately be abortive (or may need to be repeated) when the guidance is published. This could result in a delay in these authorities having an up-to-date plan.

It should be noted that the addition of paragraph 226 to the NPPF allows authorities which have published a Regulation 18 plan including allocations and a policies map to demonstrate a four (rather than five) year housing land supply; this could motivate some authorities to progress to this stage quickly. However, for authorities that have not yet started a local plan update, this is not likely to be sufficient motivation to progress a costly and uncertain process in the absence of further guidance on the new system.

 

 

The new material provides limited further insight on the content or detail of NDMPs. In the December 2022 consultation, the government asked for comments on a suggested scope and principles for guiding the proposed NDMPs. The proposed guiding principles were:
 

The responses to this consultation have been summarised and the government’s response now published. Consultees felt that policies should allow for local innovation and that NDMPs should act as a ‘floor’ rather than a ‘ceiling’ where planning authorities wanted to set more ambitious local standards. The government’s response set out that it welcomed the ‘broad agreement’ from respondents on the scope and principles of NDMPs, and will progress to use existing national development management policy (i.e. relevant sections of the NPPF) as a starting point. The government confirmed that the intention is not to prevent local planning authorities from including policies on a topic covered by the NDMPs in their plan, so long as these policies did not duplicate or contradict the NDMPs.

A further consultation on the draft NDMPs is awaited and will include ‘selective additions’ to existing national policy. Following the Royal Assent of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act on 26 October 2023 (which sets the relevant legal framework for NDMPs), these could be consulted on early in the new year however a date has not yet been set out formally.

 

The Secretary of State set out in the WMS that ‘there is now no excuse for local authorities not rapidly adopting ambitious plans’. This is certainly true for authorities that paused plan-making part-way through the process in anticipation of the NPPF changes; there is now the certainty around national planning policy to allow authorities to progress ahead of the 30 June 2025 deadline.

However, for authorities that have not yet begun a local plan review, submission of a draft plan for examination by 30 June 2025 would be very ambitious under the current system. In the absence of detailed guidance regarding the new plan-making process, its roll-out and the NDMPs, it is unclear exactly how these authorities should progress. The sooner the government is able to publish further detailed guidance on the new system and details of its roll-out, the sooner all planning authorities will be in a position to progress a local plan update with confidence.