(Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government): On 7 February we
published our Housing White Paper in which we made clear that the
housing market in this country is broken, and the cause is very
simple: for too long, we haven’t built enough homes. We have
identified three systemic problems: not enough local authorities
planning for the homes they need; house building that is simply
too slow; and a construction industry that is too reliant on a
small number of big players.
Up-to-date plans, including local plans, are essential because
they provide clarity to communities and developers about where
homes should be built and where not, so that development is
planned rather than the result of speculative applications. At
present too few places have an up-to-date plan.
On 21 July 2015 we made a Written Ministerial Statement to the
House on this same subject. At that point 82 per cent of
authorities had published a Local Plan under the Planning and
Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 regime. Today that figure stands at
92 per cent.
In the 13 years that have passed since the 2004 Act received
Royal Assent, over 70 local planning authorities have yet to
adopt a plan and of those 27 authorities still have failed to
reach the publication stage. I am particularly concerned about
the 15 local planning authorities that have recently either
failed the duty to cooperate or failed to meet the deadlines set
out in their Local Development Schemes, the public timetable that
all local planning authorities are required to put in place.
I am therefore writing today to the local planning authorities
of:
Basildon, Brentwood, Bolsover, Calderdale, Castle Point,
Eastleigh, Liverpool, Mansfield, North East Derbyshire,
Northumberland, Runnymede, St Albans, Thanet, Wirral and York.
These letters will start the formal process of intervention we
set out in the Housing White Paper. We set out that we will
prioritise intervention where:
- the least progress in plan-making has been made
- policies in plans had not been kept up to date
- there was higher housing pressure; and
- intervention would have the greatest impact in accelerating
Local Plan production
We also made clear that decisions on intervention will also be
informed by the wider planning context in each area
(specifically, the extent to which authorities are working
cooperatively to put strategic plans in place, and the potential
impact that not having a plan has on neighbourhood planning
activity).
I am writing today to give the local authorities the opportunity
to put forward any exceptional circumstances, by 31 January 2018,
which, in their view, justify their failure to produce a Local
Plan under the 2004 Act regime. I will take responses received
into account before any final decisions on intervention are
taken.
The remaining authorities who are not making progress on their
plan-making and fail to publish a plan for consultation, submit a
plan to examination or to keep policies in plans up to date are
on notice that consistent failure to make sufficient progress
will no longer be tolerated. My Department will begin formally
considering the case for intervention as deadlines are missed.
We will also bring forward the important provisions we legislated
for earlier in the year through the Neighbourhood Planning Act
2017. I will shortly lay the Regulations under section 12 to
prescribe that local planning authorities must review their plans
every five years.
We will also shortly be commencing Section 8 of the Neighbourhood
Planning Act 2017 which will place a requirement on all local
planning authorities to have plans in place for their area which
set out their strategic policies. Those strategic priorities are
set out at paragraph 156 of the National Planning Policy
Framework.
As we set out in July 2015 we recognise that production of Local
Plans is resource intensive. On 19 October 2017 we laid the
regulations which, subject to approval of both Houses, will bring
forward our White Paper commitment to increase planning fees by
20%. This delivers on our commitment to increase resources for
local planning authorities where they commit to invest the
additional fee income in their planning department. All local
planning authorities in England have given this commitment. We
will shortly announce details of the £25m of funding to help
local authorities plan for new homes and infrastructure in their
area that we announced in the White Paper.
We have, and we will continue to, support local planning
authorities in plan-making, through the Planning Advisory
Service, with support from officials of my Department and the
Planning Inspectorate.
Where local planning authorities continue to fail to produce a
plan to provide certainty to their community on where future
development will be brought forward, we will use our intervention
powers to ensure plans are put in place.
