Angela Rayner: radical reform to the NPPF
At the end of last month, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner proposed a sweeping series of reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), including reinstating mandatory housing targets for Local Authorities and a new formula, or “standard method,” to calculate the targets.
The current standard method calculates housing targets using a complex four-step process, including population growth, affordability ratios, and an urban uplift factor. The proposed method is more straightforward, setting targets based on 0.8% of current housing stock and adjusting for affordability. This means that housing targets will be more determined by where housing is currently least affordable than where the population is set to grow the fastest.
On a London level, the proposed formula will mean more homes mandated in areas with higher house price-to-income ratios, designed to balance the housing supply and improve affordability in particularly expensive areas. This means that some of the wealthiest boroughs in London will see the most significant increase in housing requirements, whilst most other Boroughs, particularly those which have built more homes in recent years, will see housing targets fall. The map below shows that LB Kensington & Chelsea will see the greatest increase in housing targets, whilst LB Tower Hamlets will see the sharpest fall.
This means that some boroughs that have previously been resistant to housing development in their area will be required to approve more applications. This may lead to tensions between councillors inclined to reject applications and council management eager to avoid fines, as well as a more strained relationship with the GLA. It will also mean that some of the least affordable Boroughs will likely fall below the 75%-of-target threshold, at which a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” is triggered.
On a national level, the scrappage of the “urban uplift” aspect of the formula will lead to reduced housing targets in London, whilst 90% of Local Authorities outside London will be required to build more. This has led to some backlash, with Freddie Poster, Executive Director at PricedOut, saying the decision was a “shame” given that London is where housing is most needed. Several Tory Councillors in the home counties have also written to Angela Rayner to protest. However, the Deputy Mayor of London, Tom Copley, pointed out that since 2016, London’s housing stock has increased faster than the rest of the country and that if the rest of England had matched this, there would be 300k more homes nationally.
The new formula generates a target of roughly 66k more homes per year nationwide. Whilst this seems like a small increase, it is three times the level of current housing delivery, and the target will be mandatory, with consequences for councils who fail to meet it. The proposed changes to housing targets highlight the new government’s focus on regional rebalancing and social democratic interventionist policies that challenge local resistance to address broader national housing needs.
