Updates

Civic Voice has published an interim report by the University of Reading on a scrutiny of the quality of local authorities’ Statements of Community Involvement. SCIs in LB Southwark and LB Brent are to be examined further.

A new Historic England Advice Note no. 16 on Listed Building Consent is published at https://lnkd.in/e7vPR4s
It gives general advice for owners of listed buildings about Listed Building Consent as an application process; how to judge whether proposals need consent or not; how to achieve certainty on the need for consent; how to make informed applications; works which may or may not need listed building consent depending on how the works are proposed to be carried out.

Parliament’s Housing, Communities and Local Government committee published its report on evidence it received for its examination of the Government’s ‘Planning for the Future’ White Paper (PWP) and its recommendations.
London Forum responded to the PWP consultation as here and finds the HCLG committee’s recomendations meet many of its concerns.
The HCLG committee interviewed Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP, Minister for Housing, on Permitted Development Rights, as here.

At least 25% of a developer’s requirement to build at least 10% affordable housing will need to be First Homes from 28th June 2021, so at least 2.5% of all homes built in a scheme would need to be First Homes.
First homes will be sold at a discount, available only for first-time buyers, of 30% at a minimum. There is a price cap, after the discount has been applied, of £250,000 or £420,000 in London.
In the consultation on MHCLG proposals for First Homes, the GLA responded that such homes would be unaffordable to most Londoners and the discount is likely [more…]

Lichfields was commissioned by the Land Promoters & Developers Federation (“LPDF”) and Home Builders Federation (“HBF”) to undertake research into how the pipeline of sites for housing development compares with what might be needed to meet the Government’s ambitions for 300,000 net additional homes per year across England. Their report is here.

In a recent interview, Robert Jenrick spoke about how communities could work with their Council to devise design codes in Local Plans to influence “beautiful” development and “gentle densification”. On tall buildings, he urged local Councils to decide where they should be located.

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John Stewart reports on Performance Based Navigation (PBN) for future flights paths being planned by ‘Our Future Skies‘. PBN is well-suited to provide noise respite. Curved and high level airport approaches could be implemented to reduce flights over any one community.

Planning permissions should include a legally-binding “delivery contract” setting out “an agreed contractual trajectory of housing delivery” with penalties for developers and councils that breach them, according to a think tank report by the Centre for Policy Studies, welcomed by the housing minister, Christopher Pincher.

“The private rented sector is unwilling and unable to house those in greatest need. As landlords seek to exit that sector, the government should purchase their properties for social rented housing”, writes Lord Richard Best, chair of the Affordable Housing Commission (AHC) which recommended a £1.3bn National Housing Conversion Fund.

Commercial estate agents Bidwells has published a Spring 2021 update on Local Plans in boroughs. It is clear that several Councils have out of date policies and are locked into the process of preparation, consultation, examination and adoption of changes which will make it difficult for them to modify plans in the near future for design codes and for whatever is the outcome of the Planning White Paper. In March 2020, the Government set a clear deadline of December 2023 for all authorities to have up-to-date Local Plans in place.
Civic and community groups should work with their local authority [more…]

The MHCLG Chief Planner, Joanna Averley wrote in April 2021 to local authority planners about measures that will remain to ease the path out of lockdown.
The letter refers also to a Government response to the August 2020 consultation on ‘Changes to the Current Planning System’ with a decision not to raise the small sites threshold below which developers do not need to contribute to affordable housing. So, Chapter 5 of the National Planning Policy Framework still applies.
The Government has delayed its decision on whether or not to extend the current Permission in Principle to major development.