Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Greenhalgh on 1 October (HL8296), 6 October (HL8828), and 28 October (HL9442), what assessment they have made of whether diversification will be sufficient to tackle developments which are currently stalled due to ‘land banking’ and ‘intentional delay’.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Sir Oliver Letwin’s 2018 Review of Build Out provided a comprehensive assessment of build out of sites and recommended that a greater diversity of housing products on residential developments was a key way to overcome issues associated with low market absorption rates. Our Planning White Paper consulted on proposals to amend national policy to encourage more variety of development types by different builders, and we are now in the process of analysing the responses. We will be publishing our response in due course
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Greenhalgh on 1 October (HL8296) and on 19 October (HL8828), what assessment they have made of the impact of tackling the practices of 'land banking' and 'intentional delay' on the market absorption rates in the housing market.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Sir Oliver Letwin’s 2018 independent Review of Build Out was clear that developers will only build new homes at a rate that the market can absorb. That is why our planning white paper sets out proposals to revise national policy to encourage masterplans and design codes for substantial development sites to see a variety of development types by different builders come forward at once. This will help speed up build out by ensuring new development can appeal to a broad range of market needs. We are also exploring further options to speed up the build out of residential development as part of the implementation of the white paper.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Greenhalgh on 1 October (HL8296) and the White Paper Planning for the Future, published on 6 August, what assessment they have made of the reasons for low market absorption rates as the responsible factor for stalled developments.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Sir Oliver Letwin's 2018 independent Review of Build Out provided a comprehensive assessment of build out rates for large residential sites which identified low market absorption rates as a key constraint. A copy of the report can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-build-out-draft-analysis.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to prevent developments stalling, and (2) to ensure obligations to build are met in a timely manner, in their changes to planning rules.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
New homes should be built out as soon as possible once planning permission is granted. We are clear that where sites are stalled or experiencing delays to delivery, it is for local authorities and developers to work closely together at a local level to overcome these barriers.
To support build out through planning, we propose to make it clear in the revised National Planning Policy Framework that the masterplans and design codes for sites prepared for substantial development should seek to include a variety of development types by different builders which allow more phases to come forward together.
We will be exploring further options to support faster build out as part of our proposed planning reforms as outlined in the Planning White Paper.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their commitment to “maintaining existing strong protections for the Green Belt, and clarifying that Green Belt boundaries should be amended only in exceptional circumstances” in Fixing our broken housing market (CM 9352), published in February 2017, what assessment they have made of the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s report State of Brownfield 2019, published in March; and what plans they have to incentivise building on brownfield sites.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
We provide strong encouragement for re-use of brownfield land. The National Planning Policy Framework expects local authorities to give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements for new homes and other uses. We ask them to prioritise brownfield wherever practicable, and have provided support in the form of increased loan funding for site preparation, infrastructure and land assembly; new permitted development rights to put existing buildings to good use; and a reduction in the constraints on brownfield sites in Green Belt to allow more affordable homes. Local brownfield registers are bringing thousands of hectares of developable land to the attention of house-builders. Local authorities are also beginning to receive proposals regarding Permission in Principle for housing-led developments on land in brownfield registers.
Brownfield sufficient for hundreds of thousands of new homes exists, but it is for local authorities to use their plans to steer much-needed housing-led development and investment to brownfield sites available in viable and sustainable locations.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal that rural areas should be exempt from section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as recommended by the Institute for Public Policy Research in their report A new rural settlement: fixing the affordable housing crisis in rural England, published in June.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The revised National Planning Policy Framework was published on 24 July 2018 and sets out the government’s planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied.
This includes policy that provision of affordable housing should not be sought for residential developments that are not major developments, other than in designated rural areas where policies may set out a lower threshold of 5 units or fewer. The national planning policy framework also states that in rural areas planning policies and decisions should be responsive to local circumstances and support housing developments that reflect local needs.
Further to this we have set out a new approach to viability. This will mean that developers know the contributions that they are expected to make and local communities are clear about the infrastructure and affordable housing they will get.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to impose a maximum amount of open market housing allowed in proposals for Entry Level Exception Sites in the draft National Planning Policy Framework.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The draft National Planning Policy Framework proposal for Entry Level Exception Sites did not include a local connection criterion or a maximum amount of open market housing. The draft Framework set out that a high proportion of the homes on the site would need to be entry-level homes offered for discounted sale or rent. The policy is designed to provide additional housing for first time buyers and renters, where it is needed.
This was consulted on as part of the draft National Planning Policy Framework. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will publish the final National Planning Policy Framework in the summer. The department does not hold information on expected land values of sites brought forward as Entry Level Exception Sites.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed Entry Level Exception Site policy in the draft National Planning Policy Framework on land values.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The draft National Planning Policy Framework proposal for Entry Level Exception Sites did not include a local connection criterion or a maximum amount of open market housing. The draft Framework set out that a high proportion of the homes on the site would need to be entry-level homes offered for discounted sale or rent. The policy is designed to provide additional housing for first time buyers and renters, where it is needed.
This was consulted on as part of the draft National Planning Policy Framework. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will publish the final National Planning Policy Framework in the summer. The department does not hold information on expected land values of sites brought forward as Entry Level Exception Sites.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the location of the proposed Entry Level Exception Sites in the draft National Planning Policy Framework will be determined by assessments of local need .
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The draft National Planning Policy Framework proposal for Entry Level Exception Sites did not include a local connection criterion or a maximum amount of open market housing. The draft Framework set out that a high proportion of the homes on the site would need to be entry-level homes offered for discounted sale or rent. The policy is designed to provide additional housing for first time buyers and renters, where it is needed.
This was consulted on as part of the draft National Planning Policy Framework. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will publish the final National Planning Policy Framework in the summer. The department does not hold information on expected land values of sites brought forward as Entry Level Exception Sites.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to develop local-connection criteria for the proposed Entry Level Exception Site policy in the draft National Planning Policy Framework.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The draft National Planning Policy Framework proposal for Entry Level Exception Sites did not include a local connection criterion or a maximum amount of open market housing. The draft Framework set out that a high proportion of the homes on the site would need to be entry-level homes offered for discounted sale or rent. The policy is designed to provide additional housing for first time buyers and renters, where it is needed.
This was consulted on as part of the draft National Planning Policy Framework. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will publish the final National Planning Policy Framework in the summer. The department does not hold information on expected land values of sites brought forward as Entry Level Exception Sites.