England planning news, December 2019
03 Dec 2019
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Key manifesto pledges that could affect the planning and development sectors
With the 12th December general election quickly approaching, all the major political parties have now released their manifestos setting out their proposals for Government.
Whilst the headline policy announcements have focused on Brexit, health and criminal justice; housing, regeneration and development all feature prominently across the manifestos. We have put together below an overview of the key pledges from the three main parties in England that would affect the sector.
The Conservatives
On housing numbers, the Conservatives have stuck to their existing target of progressing toward building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, which they say will lead to the delivery of one million homes over the next Parliament, but which would imply a rate of 200,000-250,000 per annum over a 4-5 year electoral cycle – broadly maintaining the rate of what was achieved in 2018/19.
The manifesto commits to making the planning process simpler for the public and small builders. The Party’s stance on Green Belt development remains unchanged, with the manifesto stating that brownfield land would be prioritised for development. Poor quality land would be improved so as to increase biodiversity, whilst access to Green Belt land would be improved to encourage ‘local community use’.
On infrastructure, the party would build Northern Powerhouse rail, restore railway lines closed in the 1960s and build HS2 if the Oakervee review indicates that it is the optimal solution. The Conservatives say that they would take an 'infrastructure-first' approach to development, ensuring new roads and services are in place before people move into new homes. This would be supported through the introduction of a £10 billion Single Housing Infrastructure Fund.
The current push to improve the quality and design of development would also continue, with the manifesto echoing the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission’s call for communities to be given greater say over the style and design of new development.
The party would also push for more ‘environmentally friendly homes’, helping to reduce fuel and energy bills, whilst supporting environmental targets.
The Conservatives’ expressed commitment to encouraging home ownership is maintained, through the continuation of Right to Buy for council tenants, alongside plans to expand the policy for housing association tenants. Shared ownership would also be reformed, introducing greater standardisation across the sector, with the aim of making it fairer and more simple for buyers.
The Party would publish a Social Housing White Paper which would bring forward further measures to support tenants, whilst also increasing the supply of new homes for social rent.
Labour
Labour has not put forward an annual target for the delivery of new homes. However, it has pledged that by the end of its first term in government it would be delivering 150,000 new homes a year for social rent, with 100,000 of these delivered directly by councils. If these new homes were to be genuinely additional - not at the expense of the current supply of private homes - that would imply an increase in overall supply.
Like the Conservatives, Green Belt would receive continued protections with development on brownfield sites prioritised. The Party has also stated that it would set up a new English Sovereign Land Trust, with powers to buy land more cheaply for low-cost housing; whilst Homes England would be reoriented, so as to put councils in the “driving seat”.
On town centres, Labour would review the effectiveness of current system of business rates and investigate whether a land value tax on commercial landlords would be fairer and more appropriate.
Labour would also withdraw office to residential permitted development rights. No explicit mention is made of the party’s Planning Commission.
The Party would renationalise the country’s railways and have outlined major investment plans for infrastructure, including Crossrail for the North and completing the full HS2 route to Scotland.
It would reform the existing Help to Buy initiative, ensuring that more low-cost homes are built for first time buyers with prices linked to local incomes. The definition of affordable housing would also be redefined and also linked to local incomes rather than median house prices.
Further to this, the Party has promised to bring an end to the existing Right to Buy policy to maintain the supply of affordable homes to rent. It would also review the current debt councils can hold on their housing revenue account to allow councils to play an increased role in local development.
More stringent rules would be brought in for landlords to protect private renters, through the introduction of rent controls, open-ended tenancies, and minimum standards for properties.
As part of the Party’s Green New Deal, it would also invest heavily in renewable energy and has stated that new nuclear power would be needed for energy security.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrat manifesto states that the Party would also reform planning rules to ensure developers provide essential local infrastructure alongside new homes, whilst also removing office to residential permitted development rights with the intention of protecting high streets.
The Party has promised £130 billion of funding for new infrastructure, improving and updating existing transport, mentioning it would support the delivery of HS2 and Crossrail 2. The Party have also promised a £50 billion Regional Rebalancing Programme, aimed at addressing historic disparities in investment between the nations and regions.
A range of environmental protections are outlined, including a ban on fracking, and the introduction of a ‘nature act’ that would set legally binding targets for improving water, air, soil and biodiversity.
The Liberal Democrats would maintain the Government’s existing target of aiming to deliver 300,000 homes a year, though the Party insists that this could only be achieved through a mass program of social housing. The Party’s manifesto states that it would deliver 100,000 new social homes per year to support this, helped in part by a capital infrastructure budget worth £130 billion.
The manifesto also outlines plans for a rent-to-own model of social housing where tenants would gain an increasing stake in their home, owning it outright after 30 years. The decision to continue with Right to Buy would be devolved to local councils.
Local authorities would be allowed to increase council tax by up to 500 per cent on second homes. The manifesto also states that it would introduce incentives for older persons to downsize.
The Conservative and Unionist Party, Manifesto, 2019The Labour Party Manifesto 2019 Liberal Democrats Manifesto 2019
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Quotes of the month |
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The Conservative and Unionist Party, Manifesto 2019 |
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Net housing additions increase by more than 8 per cent
MHCLG’s latest release of housing data has revealed that housing the highest year on year delivery in 30 years, totalling 241,130 net additional dwellings in 2018-19 - an increase of 8.5% nationally from last year.
All regions except the South West (-2%) saw an uplift in delivery, including East of England (+17%), the North West (+15%), and London (+13%).
Whilst the government’s planned November release of the housing delivery results has been set back by Purdah, Lichfields’ analysis shows that delivery in the Greater South East and South West delivery is lower than the Standard Method, reflecting the ongoing challenge of supply in these regions.
In other regions, delivery is higher than the Standard Method, reflecting some industry concerns that the Government’s current approach sees local authorities reducing their housing ambitions. The position of individual authorities within regions is mixed however.
In London, new supply increased by 13%, but remains well short of either the draft new London Plan or its Panel Report’s recommendation.
The RICS publishes first bespoke CIL index
The Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has now published its first bespoke annual index for use when calculating the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). It will be used when calculating CIL for chargeable developments where planning permissions are granted on or after 1 January 2020.
The new index was introduced with the recent amendments to the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations, with the aim of improving transparency and certainty around indexation by replacing the existing proprietary data with a single, publicly available, figure which is published once a year.
CIL indexation currently uses the BCIS All-in Tender Price Index (TPI) figure for 1 November of a given year to provide the figure for the following year. This figure is subject to post publication change and some collecting authorities check the TPI for November of a given year regularly in order to establish whether a higher chargeable amount might be generated than that stated on a CIL liability notice.
The CIL index is based on the average of the 4th Quarter TPI in the previous year and the TPI for first three quarters of the year in which it is calculated.
According to RICS, the index will be published on the fourth Monday in October each year and will not normally be revised.
The publication of the RICS Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Index is a small but necessary step towards simplifying the process of calculating CIL. Those calculating any potential changes to CIL resulting from an amendment made to a planning permission granted prior to this date will still need to make use of past BCIS all-in Tender Price Index.
RICS, RICS Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Index
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The Lichfields perspective |
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| Jennie Baker, Associate Director | ||
Disclaimer: This publication has been written in general terms and cannot be relied on to cover specific situations. We recommend that you obtain professional advice before acting or refraining from acting on any of the contents of this publication. Lichfields accepts no duty of care or liability for any loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of any material in this publication. Lichfields is the trading name of Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners Limited. Registered in England, no.2778116