In a Ministerial Statement issued on the day Parliament rose for
its summer recess, Secretary of State James Brokenshire published
the revised National
Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
This revised Framework replaces the previous NPPF published in
March 2012 and sets out the planning policies for England and how
these are expected to be applied by local authority planning
departments and others.
The government claims the new NPPF will provide a comprehensive
approach for planners, developers and councils to build more homes,
more quickly and in the places where people want to live. The new
rule book will focus on:
- Promoting high quality design of new homes and places
- Stronger protection for the environment
- Building the right number of homes in the right places
- Greater responsibility and accountability for housing delivery
from councils and developers
The new NPPF sets out a new way for councils to calculate the
housing need of their local community (including affordable
housing) and this new methodology aims to deliver more homes in the
places where they are most needed, based on factors including the
affordability of existing homes for people on lower and medium
incomes.
The government has restored the term 'social rent' to the
definition of affordable housing in the NPPF which now lists homes
for rent "set in accordance with the government's rent policy for
social rent or affordable rent, or is at least 20% below local
market rents" as one of several acceptable forms of affordable
housing. A draft version of the updated NPPF published in March had
removed reference to "social rent" while adding mention of starter
homes and build-to-rent.