PPG Update: Housing Supply and Delivery

The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published on 24th July 2018 and updated again on 19th February 2019. The revised NPPF introduced the new standard methodology to assess housing needs. The revised NPPF was accompanied by an interim statement that reiterated the approach to calculating the ‘Standard Method’ that was first introduced in the Government’s consultation on ‘Planning for the right homes in the right places’.

The recent update to the PPG (22nd July 2019) includes a new section on housing supply and delivery. This new section includes some of the content previously published under the ‘Housing and Economic Land Availability and Assessment’ section of the PPG, but now includes greater clarity in terms of process and expectation, and has implications in respect to the 5-year land supply calculation. The key headline requirements taken from this section include:

• The standard method for calculating local housing need will provide the minimum number of homes to be planned for. It is only in exceptional circumstances that a local planning authority may apply another methodology.

• The adopted local plan acts as the starting for assessing the housing requirement, if adopted in the last 5 years, otherwise the area’s local housing need will be calculated using the standard method.

• Local planning authorities will need to demonstrate their 5 year housing land supply position through a recently adopted local plan and subsequently through an annual position statement. The annual position statement will need to robustly demonstrate deliverability of sites, and be informed through engagement with appropriate stakeholders, including developers and landowners. The annual position statement will then be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for review and assessment.

• Local planning authorities should also identify a supply of specific, developable sites or broad locations for growth for years 6-10 and, where possible, for years 11-15.

• A stepped housing requirement may be appropriate in some circumstances, such as to take account of infrastructure delivery or changes in strategic policy.

• A 10% buffer should be included within the 5 year housing land supply, unless a local planning authority has to apply a 20% buffer because their housing delivery over the last 3 years has fallen below 85% of the requirement as indicated in the ‘Housing Delivery Test’.

• Housing shortfalls are generally addressed by the standard method, but may need to be factored in when the plan being prepared is part way through its proposed plan period and housing rates have dropped. In this instance, the shortfall will need to be added to the plan requirements for the next 5 year period.

The PPG changes and clarifications will place a stronger requirement on local planning authorities to provide a thorough, regular and up-to-date assessment of their local supply position with the aim of reducing some of the uncertainty that has been prevalent over a number of years when considering this issue at the planning decision stage.

For more information on the updates to the PPG, or if you’d like to find out more about ADP’s services please contact us at mail@adpltd.co.uk or use the form below.