Planning ahead for the new Labour Government

All local authorities to be forced to have an 'up to date' local plan and all national planning policy statements to be updated in first 6 months of the regime to make it easier to build laboratories, digital infrastructure, and gigafactories.

Despite the previous Government's repeated focus on 'getting plans in place' many local authorities still do not have 'up to date' local plans and in fact the majority have not published updated local plans for over 5 years. It is a significant commitment of time and financial resources for a local planning authority to prepare its local plan, so it will be interesting to see how Labour intends to 'force' the local planning authorities to provide this unless additional resources are offered in exchange. What will the "tough action" proposed actually look like in practice? Related to that, the proposed "mechanisms" for cross-boundary strategic planning are sensible and long-overdue and should help to facilitate the co-ordinated delivery of significant schemes.   

Labour intends to amend the NPPF to cherry pick certain types of investments that it thinks are necessary to stimulate the UK economy. This would seem to be a sensible approach if Labour is not confident it will be able to transform and expedite the general planning process for the better in the short term. However, providing weight to such developments in the NPPF does not mean that they will automatically be constructed at scale – Labour will be hoping that this tweak to the planning system will entice private developers into undertaking these desirable developments.

Compulsory purchase compensation rules to be reformed to improve and expedite site delivery and housing and transport benefits in the public interest. Landowners to be awarded "fair compensation" rather that inflated prices based on the prospect of planning permission.

Labour's proposed compulsory purchase reforms have been widely trailed, with the abolition of 'hope value' and reform of compensation rules. These are aimed at facilitating site assembly and in turn, making it easier, faster and more viable to deliver new schemes together with supporting infrastructure such as transport. While directly aimed at unlocking complex sites with fragmented landownerships, more broadly, these proposals may also indicate an intention to discourage landowners from so-called 'land-banking', making it less rewarding to simply hold land which could otherwise be used for housing or infrastructure delivery. However, there is no further detail on what "fair compensation" means, and this policy sits uncomfortably with the conclusion of the CMA's recent market study on the housebuilding sector which decided that land-banking was ‘a rational approach to negotiating planning uncertainty’.  Therefore, Labour may be better off focusing their efforts on expediting the planning process and resourcing it accordingly and, if its proposed procedural reforms are effective, they may have the desired effect of cutting down land-banking naturally.

300 new planners to be recruited, to be funded by an increase of the SDLT surcharge paid by overseas buyers from 2% to 3%.

As ever, a lack of adequate resourcing will continue to act as a handbrake on any aspirations to accelerate the planning process, so it is positive that Labour recognise this and are seeking to increase the number of planners. However, while the injection of additional planning officers will help, it is a drop in the ocean compared to the numbers needed to make a meaningful difference on the ground (it is worth noting there are 337 local planning authorities in England and Wales). The lack of planners is not the only resourcing issue facing local authorities as their legal teams, together with related disciplines such as highways and housing officers, also face increasing caseloads and all are required to play significant roles in determining applications. This issue appears to have been overlooked in Labour's manifesto and we would hope that resourcing is considered more widely in due course.

Building 300,000 new homes per year (1.5 million over the next 5 years)

This is one of Labour's six headline manifesto commitments and, whilst they have provided significantly more detail on this area than the other parties, they have set a lower housebuilding target than them. Their target of 300,000 new homes per year is broadly equivalent to the previous government's commitment, which it has struggled to meet, typically missing the target by at least 50,000 units (often significantly more). So time will tell whether this target is achievable within the next 5 years.

The slow pace of the planning system is a factor which currently inhibits the speed of delivery and Labour will be hoping that their raft of intended reforms for the planning process will help to 'unlock' the planning system for the better. However, it is likely that any such procedural reforms will take time to be implemented which may make 1.5 million homes in the next 5 years a particularly ambitious commitment. That said, the large majority will assist with the passage of new legislation through Parliament, and there will be policy tweaks that can be made in relatively short order. Indeed, the suggestion is that Labour will spring into action immediately and update the NPPF to reverse changes recently made by the previous Government. In particular, they are committed to restoring mandatory housing targets, and reforming and strengthening the presumption in favour of sustainable development.

Allowing local communities to shape housebuilding, however where necessary they "will not be afraid to make full use of intervention powers to build the houses we need"

It is unclear what it means to 'allow local communities to shape housebuilding' and so-called NIMBYism is one of the reasons why we are currently failing to meet the current demand for housing. Local communities already have a lot of say on what is developed in their local area so it is not clear what further power/discretion will be granted to them in order to facilitate housebuilding.

This seems to be an indication that Labour will not be afraid to utilise the Secretary of State's call-in power and will be keeping a watchful eye on planning applications for major housing developments to ensure that they do not get bogged down in the planning process. As is the case with many of Labour's manifesto commitments, further detail is needed on Labour's intentions here and it will be interesting to see whether they are planning to legislate further in this area to provide additional intervention powers.

Deliver the biggest increase in affordable and social housing in a generation

Year on year, planning applications are gradually falling. This is problematic for the way affordable housing is currently delivered as over half are currently funded through section 106 agreements, which rely on planning permissions being granted.

Labour have confirmed that they will be reviewing the 'right to buy' discounts introduced in 2012 and they will increase protections on newly-built social housing. However, they have not gone as far as to say that they will abolish the 'right to buy' scheme outright, which would help to preserve both the existing supply of social housing and any future waves of new social housing.

Strengthen planning obligations on affordable homes and supporting “councils and housing associations to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply”

This will be needed to compensate for the point mentioned above regarding a gradual lack of funding via planning applications. Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner has said the next Labour Government will deliver the biggest boost to affordable housing for a generation – with social and council housing at the heart of Labour’s secure homes plan. Rayner pledged that Labour will "unlock government grants to deliver new homes by making the Affordable Housing Programme more flexible, freeing up money stuck in the pipeline", and will give local authorities and housing associations "stability for the long-term, so they have the confidence and security to invest in affordable, social and council housing stock".

Take a 'brownfield first' approach but with a "strategic" approach to utilise the Green Belt, prioritising the "lower quality 'grey belt' land"

Much has been said by Labour about utilising the 'grey belt' land within the Green Belt, however it remains to be seen whether such land will be sought after by developers and smaller businesses/individual developers in practice. Given that the land will lie within the existing green belt, it is less likely to be well-connected with existing infrastructure and transport links, and the nature of the 'grey belt' land will likely give rise to additional site clearance and even remediation costs, as well as such sites potentially being more costly when it comes to meeting the new Biodiversity Net Gain requirements. It will therefore be interesting to see how this policy plays out in practice and Labour (and local planning authorities) may need to turn to incentives to deliver the outcomes intended by this policy. 

Labour have referred to 'golden rules' surrounding the brownfield and grey belt first approach, which they say will "ensure development benefits communities and nature". It is presumed that such policies would entail amending the NPPF which Labour have already indicated they will do, and do quickly. 

'Overhaul' the private rented sector by immediately abolishing Section 21 'no fault' evictions, prevent discrimination against private renters and empower them to challenge unreasonable rent increases and raise standard including extending ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private sector.

Whilst the previous Government had also tabled a Bill to reform the private rented sector, this did not complete its passage through Parliament before the election.  The new Government will therefore have to "go back to square one" in terms of legislating for the above changes.  That said, the fact that civil servants have recently done a significant amount of work on reform of this area may help to speed up the process of tabling a revised Bill in this area. 

Labour have ruled out introducing rent caps, but they have mooted the idea of taking rent stabilisation steps, and introducing an annually updated National Landlords Register for managing and enforcing standards in the PRS, which would "legally require landlords to register themselves, provide details of their properties and rents and demonstrate compliance with an annually updated PRS Decent Homes Standard".  It would also oblige landlords to upload evidence of property and management compliance (such as gas safety certificates and surveyors' reports).

Ensure homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030

Labour say that this will save 'renters hundreds of pounds per year' in energy costs.  The specific energy standards that will be required have not been set out.  There is also no indication of how this will be paid for, so it is likely that landlords will be required to foot the bill. 

It remains to be seen whether all of Labour's manifesto commitments on planning will be effective and even deliverable within the next five years and, of course, Labour will need to flesh out these commitments with further detail over the coming weeks and months. That being said, it is encouraging that Labour have clearly given a considerable amount of thought to the key issues currently facing the planning sector and one thing is certain - significant change is on the horizon for this area over the next five years.