(Minister of State, Housing, Communities and Local Government):
The country needs more, better and greener homes in the right
places.
This Government’s ambition is to deliver 300,000 homes per year
by the mid 2020s and one million homes over this Parliament.
Increasing the number of up-to-date Local Plans across England is
central to achieving that goal. Local Plans not only unlock land
for development and ensure that the right number of new homes are
being built in the right places, they also provide local
communities with an opportunity to have their say on how their
local areas will change over the coming years, and how the local
environment can be protected and enhanced.
91% of local planning authorities have now adopted a Local Plan,
but we know that many of them are not being kept up to date. In
March 2020, the Government set a clear deadline of December 2023
for all authorities to have up-to-date Local Plans in place.
It is critical that work should continue to advance Local Plans
through to adoption by the end of 2023 to help ensure that the
economy can rebound strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Completing Local Plans will help to ensure that we can build back
better and continue to deliver the homes that are needed across
England.
To support this, we recently rolled forward temporary changes
that we made over the summer to ensure the planning system
continues to operate effectively during the pandemic. In
addition, we announced changes to the methodology for assessing
Local Housing Need and published the 2020 Housing Delivery Test
measurement. This should help to provide greater certainty for
authorities who are currently preparing Local Plans. The
Government recently issued a formal direction in relation to
South Oxfordshire District Council’s Local Plan to ensure it
continued to adoption. Where necessary, we remain committed to
using all powers available to Government in order to ensure that
progress on plan making is maintained.
We also want to see Neighbourhood Plans continue to make progress
with the support of local planning authorities, to give more
communities a greater role in shaping the development and growth
of their local areas.
The Planning for the Future White Paper consultation closed in
October. The White Paper sets out proposals to deliver a
significantly simpler, faster and more predictable system. These
proposals will need further development. Authorities should not
use this period as a reason to delay plan-making activities.
Authorities who have an up-to-date plan in place will be in the
best possible position to adapt to the new plan-making system.
I will consider contacting those authorities where delays to
plan-making have occurred to discuss the reasons why this has
happened and actions to be undertaken.
This Written Ministerial Statement only covers England.
