Consultation launched on new housing need and delivery plans

The government has announced a consultation on plans to reform the planning system in a drive to increase both the supply of new homes and local authority capacity to manage growth.

The plan is to bring in a new way of assessing where new homes are most needed and ensuring they are built in that area. The government intends that it will help give a more realistic picture of how many homes each local area needs and that more homes are built in areas where homes are unaffordable.

Proposals in the consultation include:

• a standard method for calculating local authorities’ housing need

• how neighbourhood planning groups can have greater certainty on the level of housing need to plan for

• a statement of common ground to improve how local authorities work together to meet housing and other needs across boundaries

• making the use of viability assessments simpler, quicker and more transparent

• increased planning application fees in those areas where local planning authorities are delivering the homes their communities need

Communities secretary Sajid Javid said:

“The simple truth is that for far too long we haven’t built enough homes and we don’t build them …