More to come – NPPF tweaks and extra New Towns hinted by Secretary of State
Secretary of State Steve Reed MP appeared in front of the House of Commons HCLG Committee for the first time last Tuesday. In a meeting that spanned more than two hours, one theme was clear throughout: more changes to the planning system are on the way.
Though he refused to either commit to or rule out a 2nd Planning and Infrastructure Bill, Reed promised that further changes to the NPPF would be announced in a speech this December. These would be designed to “further simplify the system”, and would include changes to National Development Management Policies, as well as rules surrounding development close to train stations – a policy that has been floated by successive governments for years.
Reed also promised a further announcement on New Towns would be made in the Spring, and opened the door to further settlements beyond the 12 designated in the Taskforce’s recent report. Reed suggested that a number of local leaders had been keen to promote sites in their area yet had been excluded from the final recommendations, and that he and his department were already working with these leaders to “see what is possible” in their respective local areas – “as New Towns or in other ways”.
The Secretary of State, who was joined by his chief civil servant Dame Sarah Healey, also defended the recently announced changes to housebuilding in London (such as reducing the Affordable Housing quota to 20%) but insisted the capital’s “specific challenges” meant such changes would not be rolled out across the rest of the country.
He also claimed that recent changes to the Building Safety Regulator, such as increased resources and closer ministerial oversight, meant the regulator’s bottleneck will be cleared “by the New Year”. This was despite Chris Curtis, Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, describing it as “one of the most incompetent organisations in the country”.
We will be keeping a keen eye on any and all further planning announcements, as the government continues to stand behind its 1.5 million new home target.
