59 Councils caught short on the six-year housing land supply… Expect speculative applications!
A new rule came into force on 1 July that says Councils must now demonstrate a 6YHLS (or a 20% buffer to use the formal term) and there are some 59 Councils that fall under this new rule…
This new rule applies to Councils that don’t comply with the following:
Their Local Plan was adopted in the past five years and was examined against the now superseded versions of the NPPF, with a yearly housing requirement that is 80 per cent or less of the housing target produced by the Government’s current need assessment method.
And then much more bluntly, all Councils with the same shortfall (as set out above) in housing derived from a Local Plan that is more than five years old (so basically all Councils with out-of-date Local Plans).
It beggars the question, what does this mean? Well, let me explain:
If a Council can’t demonstrate such a “buffer” (6YHLS), then their Local Plan housing policies will be deemed out-of-date. In such circumstances, these Councils would also have to apply the presumption in favour of sustainable development, meaning that they have to approve the application unless its impacts would significantly outweigh the benefits or damage protected areas or assets.
The reality is that these Councils have lost their defendable Housing Land Supply and it opens it up for speculative applications. These Councils will have to make and pass new Local Plans (largely) to regain a defendable Housing Land Supply. But this will take time… Probably a good two to three years.
It also means that they are now open for business, whether they like it or not. Some of the larger house builders may have opportunities lined up that could now suddenly come back to life and could plug these holes, but I suspect the real winners will be the SME house builders who can move like lightning with their smaller applications and help Councils to fill this gap in the meantime until they have made the Local Plan that allocate larger development sites.
My advice to all developers, but especially to SME developers are simple: There is an opportunity here in 59 Councils across the Country where you will have an opportunity to prepare a speculative application for a windfall site. Why the focus on the SMEs? Well, on 31 October the new Scheme of National Delegation is being implemented that would (if you do it right) means that your site won’t even go to the Planning Committee and will simply be determined by the officers… add that to the policy of presumption in favour of sustainable development and you have got yourself an easy consent.
Don’t just sit there, call me!
Henry
07736121014