Government publishes response to NPPF consultation

On Thursday, the government published its response to the consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). We were pleased to see the strong commitment to social rent set out in the consultation reaffirmed in this response. The government made it clear that requirements for social rent will be separated out from those for affordable rent.

Key points from the response include:

• Confirmation of the approach to housing targets set out in the consultation: the total number of homes under the standard method will add up to 370,000. A percentage of existing stock levels will be used as the baseline for the uplift in the standard method, with an affordability adjustment.
• To align itself with the Office of National Statistics’ approach, the government has changed the affordability multiplier from 4:1 to 5:1. This means some local authorities in lower value areas won’t be subject to an affordability uplift, whereas those in higher value areas will be subject to a larger uplift in housing numbers. London’s number, for example, increases from 80,500 to 87,000.
• Following the consultation, the 50% affordable housing target will no longer be part of the golden rules. The percentage will now be set in the local plan. That amount will be subject to a premium of 15 percentage points with a 50% cap. This will allow places with lower viability to set a lower target; however, most authorities will still deliver 50%.
• Currently, the government will not be proceeding with setting benchmark land values for use in viability assessments.

We have put together a full briefing for members which can be found on the NPPF consultation resource page. If you have any questions, please do get in touch.