The UK government announced on 30 July 2024 that every council in England will be given mandatory housing targets, as it opened a consultation on a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The government's announcement said the reforms reverse the previous decision to make targets advisory and are designed to support delivery of 1.5 million homes over the next five years.
Corporate INTL Newsroom · Construction
What Mandatory Housing Targets Mean for Builders in England
By The Corporate INTL Newsroom · 31 July 2024
In her statement on national planning policy, the Deputy Prime Minister said the collective total of local targets would rise from some 300,000 homes a year to just over 370,000 a year under a revised standard method.
What the proposals would change
- Targets: mandatory housing targets calculated using an updated method, replacing one that relied on decade-old data, with extra ambition in the least affordable areas.
- Brownfield first: the default answer to brownfield development should be yes, with higher densities promoted in towns and cities.
- Grey belt: councils must review green belt boundaries where needed to meet their targets, prioritising newly defined grey belt land such as land at the edge of settlements, old petrol stations and car parks.
- Golden rules: development on released green belt land should deliver 50% affordable homes, better access to green space and supporting infrastructure such as schools and GP surgeries.
Where councils lack up-to-date plans or do not enable enough housing, homebuilders will be able to bring forward proposals on grey belt land. Land safeguarded for environmental reasons remains protected. The government also wants it to be easier to build laboratories, gigafactories, data centres, large onshore wind and solar projects.
What it means for the construction sector
For housebuilders, contractors and land promoters, mandatory housing targets combined with grey belt release could widen the pipeline of developable sites, particularly in authorities without a recent local plan. The government noted that only a third of councils have a plan less than five years old, and the Deputy Prime Minister has written to council leaders warning that she is prepared to use intervention powers, including taking over plan making.
What happens next
The consultation runs until 24 September 2024. The government said it will respond and publish NPPF revisions before the end of the year, with further reforms to follow in a Planning and Infrastructure Bill, including a national scheme of delegation for planning committees and a universal system of strategic planning.
Sources
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