Dear Member,
Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, sent a letter (please click here to view) on 27 May to all English Local Planning Authority Chief Planning Officers announcing the Government’s intention to ‘rapidly abolish Regional Strategies and return decision making powers on housing and planning to local councils.’
The letter goes on to say that decisions on housing applications ‘will rest with Local Planning Authorities without the framework of regional numbers and plans’. The Secretary of State says he “will make a formal announcement on this matter soon”.
While to this extent the letter is unclear as to whether or not LPAs will be permitted to ignore the RSS numbers from here on, or only once the RSSs have been formally abolished, it goes on to say that ‘LPAs and the Planning Inspectorate are to have regard to this letter as a material planning consideration in any decisions they are currently taking’. We must assume therefore, that because the Government has stated its intention to abolish the housing targets, and has reiterated this in this letter, it is apparently allowing LPAs free-rein to determine what they think is an appropriate housing target. Moreover, because appeals are determined in the Secretary of State’s name, he is likely to tend to support any local authority position in such matters at appeal (subject to other material considerations and the achievement of other policy objectives).
We have, of course, known that this move was high on the policy agenda of the new government. We have constantly advised the Ministers of the problems of removing RSS targets while not putting any processes in place for a robust local assessment of housing requirements. Indeed, we wrote only last week to the Secretary of State expressing concern over the ambiguity and potential effects of this approach and its effect on housing delivery and seeking urgent clarification of how local authorities will be required to justify any housing provision figures other than those in the RSS. We will, of course, be reiterating those concerns on the back of this latest development and seeking an urgent meeting with Ministers.
Meanwhile it is important that members keep us informed of any of the fallout from this latest letter. We are becoming aware of local authorities who have immediately stopped any further work on their development plan and would ask members to send details of any local authorities who are taking similarly negative actions, either on their development plan or in regard to applications currently before them. Any information will be helpful in making our case to the Ministerial team of the need for a more considered and robust transition towards a locally based planning system. Please send this to andrew.whitaker@hbf.co.uk or James.Stevens@hbf.co.uk or feel free to speak to me directly.