The Government set out reforms to the planning system, which will help local authorities deliver more and better homes - including more affordable and family homes.
Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3) will tackle the obstacles in the current planning system that mean not enough suitable sites are available to deliver the homes families and local people need. In future, local authorities will need to plan their housing strategies much further ahead of time and identify suitable sites more quickly, to prevent much-needed houses being held up by unnecessary delays in the planning system.
The new National Brownfield Strategy, which was also published for consultation, will help local authorities bring forward more brownfield land for development.
Local authorities will need to make sure they are getting the mix of homes right and meet the needs of all their community. Specifically, local authorities will need to ensure there are enough family homes, and, for the first time, ensure that the housing needs of children are being met, with an emphasis being placed on family-friendly developments including access to gardens, play areas, and parks.
New developments will have to take account of the need to cut carbon emissions and move towards zero carbon development, with higher standards for housing and planning to be set out shortly in the new Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change and the revised Code for Sustainable Homes.
Government research found that if we do not build more homes, then the proportion of thirty-year-old couples able to afford their own home will fall from over 50% today to nearer 30% in twenty years' time.
Forty-five towns and cities have come forward to propose significant increases in new homes and jobs - in addition to the existing growth areas such as the Thames Gateway. These planning changes aim to support those areas to deliver the additional homes we need, whilst raising standards at the same time.
The key policies outlined are:
Local authorities will need to identify more appropriate sites for housing. They need to plan 15 years ahead in order to prevent much needed new homes being held up by unnecessary delays in the planning process.
With the objective of setting stronger environmental standards, developers and planning bodies will have to take account of the need to cut carbon emissions as well as wider environmental and sustainability considerations when sitting and designing new homes. The forthcoming Planning Policy Statement on climate change and the new Code for Sustainable Homes will set out further details including plans to move toward zero carbon development.
A continuing focus on brownfield land is required; with local authorities setting their own local targets to reflect available sites and support the national target, with safeguards to ensure brownfield land is prioritised. They will also need to take stronger action to bring more brownfield land back into use, supported by the new National Brownfield Strategy led by English Partnerships.
There will be more flexibility for local authorities to determine how and where new homes should be built in their area, alongside greater responsibility to ensure the homes are built.
Stronger policies will develop on affordable housing, especially in rural areas.
A new independent report was published, providing a comprehensive picture of affordable housing need across Scotland. The Bramley report, commissioned by Communities Scotland and the Scottish Executive, is an update on a model first used in 2003, and gives estimates of affordable housing need across Scotland.
The report reveals a mixed pattern of shortages and surpluses of affordable housing (social rented as well as low-cost housing for ownership) across Scotland. It forecasts, at national level, an overall rise in need in the short term, and a fall in the longer term.
The report uses information from 2005 (the latest year for which full data is available) and gives three different breakdowns on the statistics, which will allow users of the information to plot potential need in different ways.
It provides estimates of need at local authority level. This model suggests a net need for a total of around 8,000 affordable homes each year in around two thirds of local authorities in Scotland. It also shows that several local authorities have a net surplus of affordable housing amounting to around 6,800. The analysis suggests that while the extent of housing pressure continues to vary widely across local authorities, the national picture is now one where the total need across local authorities with a shortfall is greater than the excess of housing in authorities with a surplus.
The report also estimates need at the level of 'housing market areas.' These can be defined as areas that households living in one local authority area may move to and still remain within both commuting distance of work and other local services. Because it is based on a more flexible market and a more mobile population, the analysis at this level identifies a lower level of net need of around 4,800 affordable homes each year.
A further level of analysis examines the data at the level of the former district council areas, which tend to be much smaller than current local authority areas. This recognises that the other two breakdowns may be too large for analysis of very local housing need in the more remote parts of some larger rural local authorities where lower income groups may be less mobile. In this analysis the overall net housing need rises to an overall requirement for around 9,500 homes each year.
At each of these levels of analyses, Edinburgh and the surrounding area consistently show the greatest current shortfall in affordable housing in Scotland, while the Glasgow housing market area and Dundee currently have the greatest surplus of homes. The report also identifies significant levels of need in several rural areas.
The Bramley report also gives forward projections at five-year intervals to 2021. While recognising the unpredictability of future house prices in particular, the report projects a number of scenarios. Under most of these a fall in affordable housing need is predicted over this longer-term period.
The latest in modern living is set to arrive in Milton Keynes as outline planning consent for the country's first "flexible" homes got the go ahead. Milton Keynes Partnership announced the news as it also received detailed planning consent for work to start on roads and other services to support the new homes.
Tattenhoe Park will provide over 1,300 new homes, many of which will be designed for maximum flexibility, making them adaptable to the changing needs of residents. The "flexible" homes will be built with future extension or adaptation in mind and could include features such as open plan layouts, or rooms with partition walls that can be easily removed or re-positioned.
The homes will sit alongside other "standard" housing types on the 59ha site and will account for at least 30% of the total number of homes. Thirty per cent of Tattenhoe Park's homes will be affordable.
Other amenities include a local centre with space for shops and business, a new primary school, a small hotel and a public house. There will also be space for community and recreation facilities including play areas, playing fields and allotments.
A tender for the first phase of housing should be released in spring 2007 and the scheme is expected to complete in 2012.
