Councils must plan for up to 20% more housing, says NPPF

LPAs must have a five year land supply plus a buffer of 5% on top of that under current rules. The NPPF (72-page / 1.3MB PDF), which comes into force today, imposes a 20% buffer for under-performing authorities.

The policy is designed to "significantly boost" the supply of housing. LPAs should identify land or areas suitable for growth for six to ten years and, where possible, for 11-15 years, the NPPF said.

All local authorities are required to identify a supply of specific deliverable sites that could be used to provide five years worth of housing against their housing requirements, with an additional buffer of 5%. The buffer can be moved forward from later in the plan period, the NPPF said.

"What constitutes a “good track record” for allocating land, which is the test to distinguish between authorities required to only have a 5 year housing supply plus 5%, rather than a 5 year supply plus 20%, will need careful scrutiny," said Richard Ford, a planning expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. "I can see there will be some significant concerns at the local authority end on both these issues.”

LPAs must set out how they plan to deliver a five-year supply of housing land, to meet their housing target, by producing a "housing trajectory" for the plan period and a "housing implementation strategy" for the full range of housing, the NPPF said.

"[The NPPF] takes a localist approach to creating a buffer of housing supply over and above 5 years, and in the use of windfall sites," said communities minister Greg Clark.

LPAs can include windfall sites in their five-year supply of housing land if they have "compelling evidence" that such sites have consistently become available in the local area, and will continue to provide a reliable source of supply, the NPPF said.

A windfall site is a site that could be available for housing, but has not been included in a council's local plan. They normally comprise previously-developed sites that unexpectedly become available, the Government said.

"Relevant policies for the supply of housing should not be considered up-to-date if the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites," the NPPF said. In addition, all housing applications should be considered in the context of the presumption in favour of sustainable development.

“The changes since the draft are almost all sensible. The final wording will of course need careful scrutiny," said Ford. "Immediate points to scrutinise include the extent of the conformity which is required for post-2004 local plans to have effect for the next 12 months."