LGA calls for planning reforms to boost housing delivery

In its submission to the government's spending review (36-page / 546 KB PDF), the LGA said the private sector could not meet the challenge of building an additional 230,000 homes a year without support from councils and housing associations. The body also raised concerns about the potential impact of government housing initiatives on affordable housing stock and the delivery of necessary infrastructure.

The LGA said restrictions on the pooling of section 106 contributions should be removed for strategic sites identified in local plans and councils should be given the power to ensure brownfield development sites are prioritised by developers. It called for local authorities to be allowed to set their own planning fees "to ensure effective, responsive and fully funded council planning services" and for local communities to be consulted over the conversion of offices to homes and any new development on brownfield land.

The LGA said exemptions from planning obligations and community infrastructure levy (CIL) granted to developers under the government's starter homes initiative would "have an impact on councils' ability to provide the essential infrastructure necessary for the new homes, ranging from roads to school places, as well as the delivery of affordable housing". The body estimated that £3 billion in section 106 payments would be foregone by councils under the starter homes scheme and recommended that the exemption be replaced by "a more robust and transparent local viability assessment".

The body said government proposals to extend the right-to-buy scheme to include housing association homes and to require councils to sell high value council homes would contribute to an estimated reduction in the country's affordable housing stock by 150,000 homes over the spending review period, from financial year 2015/16 to financial year 2019/20. It suggested that councils and housing associations selling homes under the proposals should be allowed to retain 100% of the money raised to reinvest in new stock. It also recommended exemptions to the sale of high value council homes, to exclude "property built after 2008 and likely to have higher levels of debt, housing for vulnerable groups and specialist homes that reduce health costs".

Planning expert Jamie Lockerbie of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "Under resourced council planning departments are undoubtedly an important factor in the variety of challenges that have, thus far, prevented the delivery of a sufficient number of new homes each year to meet the UK’s national need. Many of the LGA’s suggestions are sensible, with the call for the removal of section 106 pooling restrictions for strategic sites being particularly pertinent given that this is starting to become a real issue for infrastructure delivery in many parts of the country."

"However, some of the suggestions will need further commitments or action on the part of local planning authorities in order to be workable," said Lockerbie. "For example allowing councils to adopt a ‘brownfield first’ policy approach will have implications for development viability, and if developers are going to be asked to dramatically increase the amount paid in planning fees will councils still expect discretionary pre-application fees by way of planning performance agreements?"