July 2020
The Government announced last week that it will launch a planning policy paper setting out plans to introduce a new approach to planning. There is speculation that it will introduce ideas about a zonal planning system with more powers for development corporations to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure spending as part of a plan to stimulate the economy. Such a zonal planning system would involve key decisions being taken away from local councils and handed to development corporations.
This forthcoming policy paper will be published later this month, according to the Treasury, and the long-delayed National Infrastructure Strategy will now be published in the autumn.
Sir John Armitt, a Government infrastructure adviser and someone who spent a career in construction, has this week advised the Government that to “Build, Build, Build” and hit its target of 300,000 homes a year, a huge expansion of council housing, including using the Green Belt, will be needed. Delving back into history, he said the last time this volume of housing was achieved was when it was split evenly between the private sector and local authorities.
Of course, the 300,000 figure is flawed as it relies on housing projections from 2014 and earlier. What is apparent is that the 2018 figures recently produced are substantially lower and so it is important to persuade Government that it should be using current estimates as the baseline.