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Long-term Plan for Housing
19 December 2023
Lead MP
Lee Rowley
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
EconomyHousingStandards & Ethics
Other Contributors: 25
At a Glance
Lee Rowley raised concerns about long-term plan for housing in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
The Minister apologised for the Department's previous issues and announced the Government’s commitment to house building through reforms in the planning system. The focus is on delivering homes, protecting land, creating economic growth, and implementing up-to-date local plans. After consulting over 26,000 responses from December last year, changes include clarifying housing need assessments, respecting green belt boundaries without imposing top-down release, maintaining character of existing areas, updating five-year supply requirements, extending protection for neighbourhood plans, promoting beauty in placemaking, and strengthening agricultural land protections. Additional measures involve enhancing transparency, providing financial support, tackling slow processes, intervening where necessary, reviewing London policy to speed up home delivery, and aiming to facilitate desirable development with appropriate protections.
Greenwich and Woolwich
Question
Can the Minister confirm if the changes made to the NPPF will give local authorities freedom to plan for less housing than implied by nominal targets? What technical evidence does he have to support that these changes boost housing delivery?
Minister reply
The minister did not provide a specific answer but may address this in further detail during subsequent exchanges.
Greenwich and Woolwich
Question
How will the Government's 300,000 annual housing target be met given the changes to plan-making rules? Will it remain a live target?
Minister reply
The minister did not provide a specific answer but may address this in further detail during subsequent exchanges.
Greenwich and Woolwich
Question
What is the thinking behind setting a three-month deadline for up-to-date local plans? How will recalcitrant councils be treated if they miss this deadline?
Minister reply
The minister did not provide a specific answer but may address this in further detail during subsequent exchanges.
Greenwich and Woolwich
Question
The MP questioned whether changes to the National Planning Policy Framework will lead to fewer homes being built, especially given that local authorities may take advantage of new flexibility in planning. He also raised concerns about the 300,000 annual housing target and its feasibility with retained urban uplift targets and removed co-operation requirements between neighbouring councils. Additionally, he questioned the effectiveness of a three-month deadline for submitting up-to-date local plans.
Minister reply
The Minister acknowledged the flexibility in accommodating differences across constituencies but emphasised that the changes aim to build homes where infrastructure supports them and communities support such developments. He noted that urban uplift targets will focus housing development within cities rather than exporting it into rural areas near cities, addressing concerns about local plan coverage and its impact on overall housing supply.
Peter Bottomley
Con
Worthing West
Question
The MP raised a specific issue regarding double glazing in heritage buildings and the interpretation of green belts as 'green gaps'. He also advocated for high-density development to accommodate elderly people while freeing up family homes.
Minister reply
The Minister expressed willingness to discuss energy efficiency with experts, addressing concerns about double glazing in conservation areas. He agreed on the importance of preserving character while ensuring communities build appropriate housing and acknowledged the MP's points regarding the Goring Gap.
Barnsley South
Question
This morning, the Secretary of State complained about house prices. If the Government are now rightly acknowledging the impact of spiralling mortgage payments on our constituencies, when will they apologise for the cause of that—their disastrous mini-Budget?
Minister reply
Despite choosing not to acknowledge it, interest rates have risen across the world followed by a normalisation of interest rates as a recognition of changed economic circumstances. This Government will always try to work through difficult situations and improve things for the people of this country.
Question
Will my hon. Friend confirm that over the past 12 months, in writing and at the Dispatch Box, Ministers have consistently said that when making a local plan, planning authorities will be able to take into account historically high house building levels by lowering the amount of housing they need to plan for?
Minister reply
In recognition of the consultation on this matter, we have chosen not to take forward the over-supply point at this time. However, I am happy to talk about the exceptional circumstances provision and look at how it may apply to Basingstoke.
Rachael Maskell
Lab Co-op
York Central
Question
York is now the 15th least affordable place to live in the country. My constituents will have no confidence in what the Minister and the Secretary of State have set out today, because they have been waiting for a local plan for 76 years and counting. The sticking point has been with the Government Department, not the will of the Labour council. When will York receive its local plan?
Minister reply
We are keen to ensure that local plans progress as quickly as possible for every council that chooses to pursue the process, and we will continue to add support and capacity into the system.
Bob Blackman
Con
Harrow East
Question
In the written ministerial statement—there is a strong suggestion that there will be a review of London and the centre of London. One challenge we face in suburban London is that planning applications for high-density, very tall buildings are suitable for young professionals but useless for families.
Minister reply
We recognise that there needs to be an appropriate balance in urban areas where character is important.
Daisy Cooper
Lib Dem
St Albans
Question
Liberal Democrat-led St Albans City and District Council has been pressing ahead with the development of its local plan. Two years ago, I wrote to the Government requesting additional funding for accelerating our plan-making process but was denied.
Minister reply
The Liberal Democrats have had four and a half years since 2019 to put a local plan in place. It is on them for failing to do so.
Mark Francois
Con
Rayleigh and Wickford
Question
There are two ways of doing it: we can have mandatory targets where the man in Whitehall knows best or advisory targets where the Department recommends a target but if locally elected councillors know that it is too high, they can push back.
Minister reply
The NPPF says that the outcome of the standard method is an advisory starting-point. There are potentially exceptional circumstances that can be discussed with a representative of the Government.
Tan Dhesi
Lab
Slough
Question
Our country is facing a housing crisis and, after more than 13 long years, the Government have utterly failed the nation. Data from Glenigan show that planning consents are at a record low.
Minister reply
Planning consents are down because of global economic challenges. We need to take communities with us in building homes.
Harriett Baldwin
Con
West Worcestershire
Question
I thank the Minister for recognising the hard work that local communities such as Hallow, Clifton upon Teme, Kempsey and Welland have done. However, our council is run by the independents and Greens who do not have a local plan in place.
Minister reply
We are updating the NPPF with regard to neighbourhood plans, and we are strengthening them because they demonstrate that having honest conversations about planning can take some of the challenge out of the system.
Andrew Western
Lab
Stretford and Urmston
Question
I am somewhat perplexed by the renewed focus on strengthening local plans given the abolition of the mandatory housing targets that underpin delivery against them. Indeed, the Minister appears to be outlining a situation in which local authorities can game the system and deliberately plan to under-deliver if they have an up-to-date local plan, but a local authority that is delivering can be stripped of its planning powers because its plan is not up to date.
Minister reply
We are not preventing increases of urban density. We recognise that there are considerations around things such as second staircases, which we are working at pace to resolve as quickly as possible.
Question
Will he confirm that the inclusion for the very first time in the NPPF of the words “advisory starting point” will have an impact on both the level of targets set and the weight to be given to a target? How, in practice, will that change the approach taken by planning inspectors when they approve plans and decide on individual planning appeals?
Minister reply
It is absolutely the case that the purpose of amending the national planning policy framework today is so that this information and wording are taken into account in the process.
Question
We have been here before with housing targets. However, where we have an irresponsible council—Liberal Democrat, obviously, in Mid Devon—we have another problem because they do not care and are there just to cause trouble at every level. The Minister must make sure that the safeguards are there for people who live in these areas—not hope; we need actual safeguards.
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is one reason why we have been clear with a number of councils today that they need to get on with things.
Wendy Morton
Con
Aldridge-Brownhills
Question
In constituencies such as mine, the green belt is vital to protecting us from the urban sprawl of Birmingham. However, can the Minister provide greater clarity on the matter of targets? It would be very helpful to have a clear understanding of what is meant by the advisory starting point and its impact on any ongoing mechanisms to impose the quotas of other authorities on a neighbour.
Minister reply
On my right hon. Friend’s second point—I am grateful to her for raising it—the duty to co-operate has been superseded.
Question
I thank my hon. Friend for his statement. I am encouraged by his words on provision of care and retirement housing and his focus on design quality. Can he tell me a little more about the safeguards for the green belt under the Conservative party, particularly compared with the Labour party?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is absolutely correct about the importance of older people’s housing.
Question
Communities in South Ribble are subject to Chorley Council. I understand that Chorley is one of only two councils designated for poor planning performance. Does the Minister believe that that poor performance is due to Chorley’s failure to produce a local plan to protect South Ribble residents from inappropriate planning applications?
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is a huge champion for her constituents in South Ribble.
Greg Smith
Con
Mid Buckinghamshire
Question
I place on record my gratitude to the Secretary of State for agreeing, this time last year, to put stronger protections for land use in food production into the NPPF. Will he clarify that the new language in the NPPF is a binary test where land is either used in food production or is not?
Minister reply
On my hon. Friend’s second point, absolutely.
Question
I thank my hon. Friend for much of today’s announcement. In seats such as mine, it does not really matter what the target is when such a high proportion of the homes that are built are just used as short-term holiday lets. When might we have the results of that consultation and steps to ensure that, when we build homes in communities such as mine, those homes are affordable for the people who live and work there?
Minister reply
I am grateful to my hon. Friend not just for her question but for her Adjournment debate a few days ago.
Question
Can he clarify what the consequences are if a district council has already embarked on a consultation on a local plan but, having studied the NPPF in detail, sees stuff there that it wants to embrace and chooses to adopt elements of the NPPF, which then leads to a consequential delay?
Minister reply
There is a long section at the end of the revised NPPF that explains the arrangements for councils that are in the process.
Question
I welcome in particular the remarks on character, on beauty, on the importance of agricultural land, on the importance of community support and on the fact that targets are a start point and not an end point. Will the Minister just confirm that the exceptional circumstance will be available—perhaps even welcome—for examples including islands separated by sea, such as my Isle of Wight constituency?
Minister reply
The footnotes to paragraph 61 use as an example areas that are islands with no land bridge that have a significant proportion of elderly residents.
Nigel Mills
Con
Amber Valley
Question
It is a privilege, Madam Deputy Speaker. Five years ago, the export of houses from Derby made a local plan in Amber Valley impossible, but there is no reason for delay now. Does the Minister agree that there is no reason for the Labour-run council not to have made more rapid progress with the pretty reasonable plan it inherited in May? Will he also confirm what the consequence will be if the 12-week direction he has issued today does not result in rapid progress, to ensure that residents in Amber Valley get a local plan sometime soon?
Minister reply
I am grateful to my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour, who I know speaks up for his constituents. Labour won Amber Valley Borough Council and it now needs to own ensuring that the council delivers on its responsibilities. If Labour has made promises to Amber Valley residents that it cannot fulfil, that is on Labour. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of councils to make sure that they have a plan in place, and to do that at the earliest possible opportunity. Where Labour councils such as Amber Valley are failing to do that and are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, it is right that he calls that out. Amber Valley needs to get on with its plan.
Shadow Comment
Matthew Pennycook
Shadow Comment
The shadow Minister criticised the Government's track record on housing plans since 2010, stating that the reforms are not in line with their rhetoric. He highlighted issues such as the impact of changes on overall housing supply, the retention of the urban uplift requirement despite the removal of out-of-area cooperation, and the lack of detailed explanation for meeting the annual housing target. Pennycook questioned how local plan coverage will be improved under the revised framework, raised concerns about proposed interventions for recalcitrant councils, and suggested that these changes could lead to a shift from a plan-led system focused on meeting needs towards one based purely on political feasibility.
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