Government Plan for Change

The Labour Government confirmed in July 2024 its five missions from its manifesto and its first six steps for change.  A December 2024 Plan for Change sets “clear, measurable milestones” for each of the missions and the Prime Minister gave a speech to explain it. One milestone is building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects.

To support its aims, the Government has published a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to drive local planning and decision making. A comparison document of the December 2023 and December 2024 versions of the NPPF is available here. Joanna Averley, the DHCLG Chief Planner, has issued a newsletter to local authorities about the new NPPF.

A new version of the Government’s ‘standard method‘ for imposing housing targets on each local authority has been devised but will not apply to boroughs in London. The next London Plan in 2027 will be expected to achieve 88,000 net additional homes per year and will apportion them to each Council based on their land capacity to build.