The proposed amendments largely reverse the changes made in December 2023 relating to housing land supply and, in particular, the protections afforded to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) who had reached the Regulation 18 or 19 stage of their Local Plan, which determined whether they were required to demonstrate a 4 year or 5 year supply.
This significant change would remove a key barrier that LPAs were undoubtedly using to hide behind when it came to decision making and led to numerous appeals following speculative planning applications.
Importantly, for plan making and housing delivery implications, the NPPF changes would restore the requirement for LPAs to demonstrate a rolling minimum 5 year housing land supply even if they have an adopted plan that is less than five years old. This will be vital in holding LPAs to account when it comes to housing delivery over the Plan period and will be an important mechanism in helping the Government to get closer to their ambitious housebuilding targets over the next 5 years.
References to the 5% buffer are added back into the NPPF whilst the 20% buffer for LPAs that have demonstrated a significant under delivery of housing over the previous three years remains, to improve the prospects of achieving planned supply over the Plan period.
The Effect of These Changes
It is, therefore, anticipated that these changes will help to kickstart action on a number of housing applications that are currently sitting within the system, or indeed waiting to be submitted, the progress of which may have stalled when the December 2023 requirements were first published.
