Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined her vision for boosting the British economy, focusing on reforming the planning system to unlock development.
The new government announced plans to hire 300 planning officers, prioritise energy projects, and permit more development in low-quality or previously developed Green Belt areas, termed the ‘Grey Belt’. They sought to reinstate mandatory housing targets for Local Authorities, which were removed last year to try and encourage a positive approach to development and the necessity of having up-to-date Local Plans.
Then on Tuesday 30 July we received the much anticipated detail behind these polices in a Ministerial announcement from the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and the release of the draft NPPF for consultation. In essence the Government is looking to change the Standard Methodology for Housing Targets. This would see generally an increase in housing units that LPAs are required to plan for. Additionally, ‘Grey Belt’ was defined for the first time. A synopsis of the definition is greenfield sites close to existing infrastructure that do not have any other overriding designations and do not contribute to the key objectives of the Green Belt. On such sites speculative housing applications can come forward within authorities that do not have a 5-year housing land supply or a housing delivery test below 75%, which represents many of the Green Belt authorities in the South East. As such this is an exciting time for many of our landowners as it could significantly increase the development potential of land we never considered developable before.
The changes will not come in effect until the new NPPF is adopted, which is likely to be at the end of this year. However if you do have land in the Green Belt, then it is never too early to begin doing the preparatory work for when these changes are brought into force. Please do not hesitate to get in contact and we can begin the ball rolling where potential development opportunities occur.
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