Planning Expert Reacts To The Housing White Paper

Planning experts at law firm Irwin Mitchell labelled the housing White Paper ‘a disappointment’ after its release today.

The new housing strategy for England released by government today includes forcing councils to plan their own needs and produce plans for housing demand, as well as giving them the power to pressurise developers to start building on land they own. 

In a statement to MPs set out by Mr Javid, details of the housing White Paper are as follows: 

• Forcing councils to produce an up-to-date plan for housing demand
• Developers are to avoid ‘low density’ housing where land availability is short
• The three year allowance between planning permission and the start of building has been reduced to two years 
• Smaller building firms will be helped to challenge major developers where parts of buildings are assembled in a factory with a £3bn fund
• ‘Lifetime ISA’ to help first-time buyers 
• Protection over the green belt which can only be built on in ‘exceptional circumstances’

The government says at least 250,000 new homes are needed each year to keep pace with demand.

Carl Dyer, National Head of Planning at Irwin Mitchell said: 

Expert Opinion

“After all the pre-briefing and the hype, this is a profound disappointment. There was talk of this being a "game changer". It isn't. What we have is a surrender to the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) groups.

“The government appears to have bought the argument that the problem is not the planning system but developers refusing to implement planning permissions. The same was said of supermarkets for years; and then the Competition Commission investigated the claims and found they were nonsense.

“Of course there are delays implementing permissions: with councils imposing dozens of conditions on every one, it can take months or years to meet them all. Very, very few permissions actually lapse, so shortening the life of permissions will have almost no long term impact.”

“There will be two short term effects. First, some permissions will have to be implemented during this Parliament rather than the next one. That is doubtless the intention - to help the government towards its already forlorn looking target of one million homes this Parliament. They won't get there. We've been building about 35,000 homes a quarter; we needed to be building 50,000 per quarter; and the required rate is heading towards 60,000 per quarter. Nothing in this White Paper is going to change that.

“The other effect is that some councils or local objectors will see an opportunity to frustrate developments they didn't want to approve, or which are granted on appeal. Two years can be a very short time.

“Meanwhile, we must still "Keep Off The Grass". The Green Belt" remains sacrosanct. Good news if you have already got your expensive house in Surrey. Less good if you are commuting on Southern Rail from points south of there, and very possibly can't afford to buy a property because decades of under supply has pushed prices beyond most young people's price bracket.

“Whatever we hear over the next few days and weeks, what this package really tells us is that Mrs May and her ministers are more concerned with not upsetting their Home Counties middle-aged political base than with housing their children.”
Carl Dyer - Partner