The Times - UK (2020-08-07)

the times | Friday August 7 2020 2GM 7

News

The proposals intended to start a con-

struction boom are the biggest change

to the planning system for 70 years.

Among them are new housing require-

ments on local councils, a simplified

testing system for developers, and more

modern, accessible public consultation.

zoning

Land will be split into three categories.

On growth land, developments will get

permission in principle if they accord

with the local plan. Green belt land will

be in the protected category, along with

sites of “rich heritage”. Renewal is a

middle ground on which “gentle” devel-

opment is encouraged.

Whitehall’s aim is to make it less risky

and costly to seek planning permission.

Smaller developers say that the present

rules are biased towards larger builders

with the money to hire consultants and

lawyers to help them game the system.

affordable housing

Under a First Homes scheme, new

properties would be sold to first-time

buyers, key workers and locals at a

30 per cent discount. This would be

locked in to keep the home in the

affordable housing pool. The govern-

ment wants a quarter of all affordable

homes to be discounted. Shelter and

the Local Government Association

would prefer social housing. Savills, the

estate agent, said the reform would re-

duce the supply of shared ownership

homes, which “offer a route to home

ownership with lower deposits and low-

er income requirements”.

local plans

Every local authority will have a local

plan setting rules for development.

Residents and politicians will be invited

to get involved at the planning stage but

will have little or no say over develop-

ments once the plans are in place. This

will encourage councils to think about

long-term plans and force them to do it

affordable housing, sustainable

transport and other critical infra-

structure. “Many of these proposals will

require not only serious time and

financial resource but in some cases

primary legislation. There is a risk that

development and house-building could

stall while this is implemented,” Ms

Hills said.

Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer

disagreed yesterday over the issue of

affordable housing. Sir Keir said: “This

is a developers’ charter, frankly, taking

councils and communities out of it. And

on affordable housing, which is the crit-

ical issue, it says nothing. In fact it re-

moves the initiatives that were there for

affordable housing.”

During a visit to a housing develop-

ment in Warrington, Mr Johnson said

that simplifying the process for builders

would lead to more affordable housing.

“This solution gives them a much sim-

pler infrastructure levy that enables

them to go ahead and build a much big-

ger chunk of affordable housing and

help people on to the property ladder.”

I

n the Building Better,

Building Beautiful

Commission’s final

report, Sir Roger

Scruton wrote that

“beauty must become the

natural result of working

within our planning system”

not “a cost, to be negotiated

away once planning

permission has been

obtained”.

We need, he argued, to

turn our planning system

around “from its existing

role as a shield against the

worst, to its future role as a

Beautiful surroundings matter — this is a ray of hope

champion of the best”. Does

the government’s planning

white paper start to achieve

this? I think it does. It’s

certainly ambitious.

That brings risk (“Very

courageous, minister”) but it

gets three big things right.

First, it accepts that the

popular beauty and

liveability of the new

settlements that we create

matters. It matters for the

public acceptance of their

creation and for the lives

that our children and

children’s children will lead

in them.

There is a growing

corpus of evidence that

many of the components

that make places beautiful

(such as walkable streets,

“gentle density” and street

trees) also make them

healthy, happy and

sustainable.

Far too few new places

achieve this — less than a

quarter, according to one

recent study. That must

change with more visual

local plans setting popular

“pattern books” for what is

acceptable.

Second, the white paper is

right that we need to create

a more predictable and level

playing field. There is a

smoking gun if you want to

understand why we don’t

build enough homes in

England. It’s that our system

operates on a uniquely

discretionary case-by-case

basis. This creates greater

uncertainty, which has

increased planning risk,

pushed up the price of land

with permission to build and

acted as a rising barrier to

entry.

It is no coincidence that

the proportion of homes

delivered by small builders

is declining (12 per cent and

falling); that only 10 per cent

of our homes are self-built

compared with a 50 per cent

European average; or that

modular construction is

struggling to gain a foothold.

Finally the white paper

is right that we need to

“bring the democracy

forward” and re-invent the

ambition, depth and breadth

with which councils engage

publicly in the creation of

local plans. Creating

shorter, more powerful and

more visual local plans will

help but councils will also

need to reinvent their use of

digital technology.

There are risks. But

there is also every reason to

hope that a revitalised

planning system would help

us again aspire, with the

great architect Clough

Williams-Ellis, for a “happy

awareness of beauty” to be

“the everyday condition of

us all”.

Nicholas Boys Smith is the

director of Create Streets

and was co-chairman of the

Building Better, Building

Beautiful Commission

alongside the late

Sir Roger Scruton

Nicholas

Boys Smith

Comment

Fast track for beauty —

automatically permits proposals

for high quality developments

where they reflect local

character and preferences

New permitted development

rights to enable more homes to

be built on top of buildings and

the demolition and rebuilding of

vacant sites for housing, without

usual planning permission

PIC

Convert

and extend

old industrial

buildings

All new streets

to be tree-lined

More building on

brownfield land

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News

collision course with Tory shires

What reforms

mean and how

they will work

Melissa York Assistant Property Editor quickly and briefly. Local plans will

have to be completed in 30 months,

which experts have said is ambitious.

releasing land

Whitehall will impose housing require-

ments on local councils and those in

more affluent areas — which are typi-

cally Conservative-controlled — will

be required to release the most land.

Allowing councils discretion on their

targets is judged to have failed. White-

hall will effectively distribute a national

target, at present 300,000 new homes a

year, to councils who will decide only

which land to designate, not how much.

design codes

A national design code will set out clear

rules for developers nationally, to be

tweaked at a local level. It will fast-track

approval for “beautiful” developments.

All new streets will be tree-lined and

new homes carbon neutral by 2050.

This top-loading is a radical change. It

will take months, if not years, to achieve

a consensus on “good” design.

new levy

At present developers must pay a mix of

levies and meet conditions that typical-

ly include a set number of affordable

housing units and helping councils to

meet the costs of an increased popula-

tion. These will be replaced by a single

national infrastructure levy based on

the proportion of a development’s

market value above a fixed threshold,

and distributed to local authorities to

spend as they choose. Ministers have

said that the overall cost to developers

will rise and that more affordable

homes will be built as a result.

digitisation of plans

Ministers want planning to be digital-

first, making all information about

applications available to view on a

phone. A property-tech innovation

council will promote start-ups to boost

an emerging sector that could be worth

£6 billion, according to Forbes.