On 30th July 2024, the new Labour Government published a draft of the revised NPPF, which is now available for public consultation until 24th September. It took the new Labour government 26 days to publish the revised version and the amendments do more than row back on the most recent Conservative alterations. The proposed changes, as promised, are profound for the development industry.

We summarise some of the key changes below:

Housing Supply and Targets

• Housing targets are no longer ‘advisory’.

• Removal of the 5-Year Land Supply (5YLS) exemption for LPAs who have an adopted plan that is less than 5 years old.

• The 5% and 20% buffers to be applied to five-year housing land supply assessments that had been abolished are now reinstated.

• The use of suitable brownfield land within settlements for housing to be regarded as acceptable in principle.

• Potential new targets have been outlined using a new method for calculating housing need, the methodology of which is yet to be published. Applied nationally, the revised Method equates to 371,541 dwellings per annum.

Affordable Housing

• New requirement for planning policies to identify a minimum proportion of social rent homes to be met through new development.

• Removal of the minimum 10% affordable home ownership product requirement. Instead, the tenure mix is to be led by identified local needs.

Climate Change

• Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) should support proposals for all forms of renewable and low-carbon development, with emphasis that these proposals’ contribution to a net zero future should be given significant weight.

Design
• Reversion to more technical language such as ‘high quality design’ rather than the subjective term ‘beautiful’. Removal of references to authority-wide design codes.

Green Belt

• LPAs will be required to review their Green Belt boundaries during local plan preparation in exceptional circumstances, including if they are unable to meet an identified need for housing or other development.

• A new definition of Grey Belt is introduced into the NPPF in order to guide where revisions to Green Belt boundaries should take place. ‘Grey belt’ is formally defined as land in the Green Belt comprising previously developed land or land that makes a limited contribution to the five Green Belt purposes, but excluding those areas or assets of particular importance (habitats sites, SSSI, local green space, AONB, National Parks, heritage assets etc…)

• Development in the Green Belt should not be considered inappropriate where it is located in the ‘grey belt’, where the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a 5YLS or fail the 75% Housing Delivery Test, or where new policy criteria is met.

Limited changes are proposed directly in respect of further support for the rural economy. However, it is probable that the above-mentioned changes will indirectly impact on the development potential of land in rural areas.

If you would like to discuss the implications of these changes, please feel free to reach out to one of our expert planning consultants.
e: advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk
t: 01284 700727

Published 2nd August 2024