Introduction
The UK's planning system is multi-faceted and there are many aspects that developers need to be aware of when operating in a specific region.
In this section, we take a look at how LPAs are performing across the South West in regard to local plan status, housing delivery and Established Five Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS).
Local Plan Status
Paragraph 11(d) of the NPPF makes it clear that where an authority does not have a up-to-date development plan (i.e. less than five years old), the ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ kicks in and councils must approve applications unless ‘any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in this Framework [the NPPF] taken as a whole’.
This significantly lowers the bar for demonstrating that a development is acceptable and should be approved - so knowing if the development plan is ‘in-date’ is important for development proponents.
In the South West, it is only Bath and North Somerset (thanks to their recent Partial Review) and Mid Devon that have local plans that are not already out of date, or at risk of becoming out of date within the next six months.
Plymouth, Sedgemoor and South Hams all have plans that will reach the five year milestone within six months of the date of writing this report (November 23). The rest of the region is unable to demonstrate that they have reviewed their local plan recently enough to satisfy the requirements of the NPPF.
Housing Delivery
Housing Delivery is a measure of an LPA’s performance that measures historical housing delivery against their accepted housing need. It is measured annually in data published by the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities.
If an LPA cannot deliver at least 95% of its housing need in a year then they must prepare an Action Plan detailing how delivery will be improved in subsequent years. If they fall below 75%, then future applications are subject to a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ (AKA ‘the tilted balance’), meaning that there is a much higher bar for refusing applications thanks to paragraph 11(d) of the NPPF.
Housing Delivery is a measure of an LPA’s performance that measures historical housing delivery against their accepted housing need. It is measured annually in data published by the Department of Levelling Up Housing and Communities. If an LPA cannot deliver at least 95% of its housing need in a year then they must prepare an Action Plan detailing how delivery will be improved in subsequent years. If they fall below 75%, then future applications are subject to a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’ (AKA ‘the tilted balance’), meaning that there is a much higher bar for refusing applications thanks to paragraph 11(d) of the NPPF.
Five Councils in the South West were recorded in the most recently recorded statistics as failing to meet 75% in their housing delivery test, these Councils are BCP, Bristol, Dorset, South Hams, and Torbay.
Established Five Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS)
Five Year Housing Land Supply (5YHLS) is a measure of an LPAs performance that looks ahead to their capability to deliver housing in future. Each LPA is required to maintain a rolling stock of 5 years’ worth of housing land, based on their accepted annual housing need.
Failure to demonstrate an acceptable housing land supply will result in the presumption in favour of sustainable development (or tilted balance) being applied, which makes it very difficult to justify refusal of planning applications.
Over half of the Councils in the South West region are unable to demonstrate an adequate housing land supply position. This figure changes all the time as appeal decisions are issued - up to date information on housing land supply position is available in LandInsight.
Presumption in Favour
As outlined above, if any one of these metrics (age of local plan, housing delivery, or housing land supply) is not adequate, then the presumption in favour of sustainable development kicks in. In the South West, one or more of these triggers is met in all but two of the LPA, meaning that the presumption in favour of sustainable development currently applies everywhere but Plymouth and Mid-Devon.
Related Resources
If you've enjoyed the data insights about strategic land in the South West, check out our other planning reports for the region below: