Government Housing Policies

Local planning incentives and enforcement: A new Housing and Planning Delivery Grant will direct extra resources to those councils who are delivering high levels of housing and to those councils who have identified at least 5 years worth of sites ready for development. Local councils will have to identify enough land to deliver the homes needed in their area over the next 15 years by rapidly implementing new planning policy for housing (PPS3). We are publishing new guidance showing how councils can find the land they need. Where councils have not identified enough land and do not grant sufficient planning permissions, planning inspectors will be more likely to overturn their decisions and give housing applications the go ahead at the appeal stage. We will also consult on ways to strengthen the requirement on developers to commence development or lose planning permission, and what more can be done to develop a consistent approach to the disclosure of land holdings.

Recycling homes and land: We also need to make the most of existing homes and buildings and disused land. We believe brownfield land should be the priority for development. The Government will continue with the national target that over 60% of homes should be built on brownfield land and every region and local authority will be expected to set their own target for brownfield land use. The new homes agency will work with local authorities to support them in their place-shaping role, including on how local authority and other disused land can be used to lever in private investment and transform communities. Councils, as part of their strategic housing role, need to reduce the number of homes that are left empty for long periods of time. We will explore a range of measures including the new Housing and Planning Delivery Grant.

Better use of land

We have achieved all this whilst protecting the green open spaces around our towns. Clear and consistent planning policies have enabled the proportion of homes built on brownfield land to rise from 56% in 1997 to nearly 75% today. And by using land more efficiently, the density of new housing has been increased from 25 to 40 dwellings per hectare.

Better use of disused land as our new homes agency supports councils in drawing up local strategies to maximise development on brownfield sites;

New local planning incentives

A key requisite for faster delivery of more housing is more land, so that land availability is not a constraint on the delivery of more high quality homes.
Local Councils therefore need to do more to bring forward suitable developable land for housing. As set out in Planning Policy Statement (PPS3), they need to identify at least a 15 year supply of land with 5 years worth that is available to deliver the level of homes that they need.
Local planning authorities should plan for the best location of new housing through their Local Development Frameworks, prioritising the use of brownfield land and setting their own local targets which take account of suitable and available sites and support the national target of at least 60% of homes being built on brownfield land. We strongly encourage Local Planning Authorities to move forward quickly to identify broad locations for housing in core strategies and, in parallel, site allocations in development plan documents, to avoid any delay in making sufficient land available in a flexible and responsive way.
If a local authority cannot demonstrate that it has an up to date five year supply of deliverable sites, planning applications for development on other sites should be considered favourably. If applications relate to sites that are allocated in the overall land supply, but which are not yet in the up to date five year supply, local authorities should still consider whether granting planning permission would undermine achievements of their policy objectives. Where councils have not identified enough land, planning inspectors will be more likely to overturn their decisions and give housing applications the go ahead on appeal.

Recycling homes and land

The success of our strategy is not just about building new homes, it depends just as much on making better use of existing buildings and maximising the use of brownfield sites for building new homes.

Sustainable brownfield land continues to be the priority for development, with a continued national target that over 60% of homes should be built on brownfield sites
Every local authority will be expected to set their own target for brownfield use
Councils will also be expected to do more to bring long term empty homes back into use, and we will explore a range of measures including the new Housing and Planning Delivery Grant

Maximising the use of brownfield

We also need to make the most of disused land. Brownfield land should be the priority for development. We have a national target that at least 60% of homes should be built on brownfield land. This remains our goal.
Local authorities need to continue to prioritise sustainable brownfield land in their plans, with flexibility to distinguish between different brownfield sites, as some will not be appropriate for development, including those with significant biodiversity value or flood storage functions. They should set their own local targets to reflect available sites and support the national target. Authorities need to take stronger action to bring more brownfield land back into use.
English Partnerships are supporting this process, helping us understand and overcome those problems which are preventing some private and public brownfield sites from being brought back into use. They will help local authorities develop robust local brownfield strategies to identify the potential for brownfield land reuse and likely timescales involved.
English Partnerships and the Academy for Sustainable Communities will review the existing brownfield skills gap and identify needs for new training programmes. Government is working with all its partners to maximise the use of brownfield sites.
The new homes agency will work with local authorities to support them in making best use of brownfield land to lever in private investment and transform communities.
The modernisation of empty property relief within business rates announced at Budget 2007 will increase the incentives for efficient use of commercial property and, as Sir Peter Hall has commented provide opportunties for regeneration of brownfield land including for housing.

Click here to download the full Government Housing Green Paper