The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to significantly boost the supply of housing. This is to be achieved by identifying a 5 year housing supply and ensuring local plans meet the full Objectively Need Assessment (OAN) for housing.
How does the 5 year supply impact residential developments?
Where Council’s cannot demonstrate a 5 year housing supply, planning policies relevant to the supply of housing should be considered to be out of date and given less weight in decision making. Whilst there remains a need for developments to be sustainable, the absence of a 5 year housing supply provides added opportunity to achieve residential development on sites normally resisted by local development plan policies.
How are Council’s performing and what affect does this have?
A study undertaken by PAS (Planning Advisory Service) in 2014 identified that nearly half English planning authorities don’t consider they have a five-year housing land supply as required by the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). As the need to have a 5 year supply is ongoing Councils will continue to be under pressure to hit these targets and the implications of this will remain.
If councils do not meet the 5 year supply, the NPPF says, the “relevant policies” in their local plan are not considered up to date, decisions are liable to challenge and the framework’s “presumption in favour of sustainable development” is used to determine applications at appeal. This ultimately provides opportunity for residential development (including C2 uses) to be approved in locations where the Council may not normally consider it appropriate.
At Ward Planning, we have developed a good understanding of the implications of the 5 year supply policy. This is demonstrated by our numerous successes on the subject, both through planning applications and appeals.
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