The state of local plan production in England
The decline in Local Plan making in England had started to become apparent when our 2022 report was published, but has significantly accelerated over the last two years.
According to the Home Builder’s Federation (HBF), between 2022 and November 2023, approximately 64 Local Planning Authorities had delayed or withdrawn their local plans; many of them citing uncertainty over the Government’s planning policy direction as a key reason for doing so.
This dramatic slowdown in local plan production is a significant cause of the lack of progress evidenced in this year’s results.
As a result of the ongoing inertia in local plan preparation, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has started to intervene in local plan production in England.
On 19 December 2023, DLUHC wrote to seven local authorities, directing them to progress their local plans. The local authorities were chosen as DLUHC was concerned that they had missed their plan making milestones. All seven authorities have been asked to revise their local plan timetable and will be required to provide regular progress reports to departmental officials at DLUHC. This will enable them to decide whether further interventions may be needed in the future.
The seven authorities are:
- Amber Valley
- Ashfield
- Basildon
- Castle Point
- Medway
- St Albans
- Uttlesford
There is also a further subset of local authorities who have been prevented from withdrawing their local plans from examination by DLUHC: Spelthorne, Erewash, Mole Valley and West Berkshire.
Finally, a smaller number of local authorities whose local plans have either failed at examination or where the examination itself appears to be in trouble, such as Solihull and Tandridge.
A number of other local authorities’ scores have also regressed. There are a variety of reasons for these changes, ranging from the overall age of the plan and the likelihood of allocations having been built out, a slow-down in plan progression, a failure to bring forward an allocation, or moving to a more generic policy concerned with meeting the needs of all demographics in their community (rather than being more specifically aimed at promoting seniors housing).