Jenrick to ‘rethink planning from first principles’

The government will today set out plans to “rethink planning from first principles” when housing secretary Robert Jenrick unveils long-awaited reforms to the planning system designed to speed up housing delivery.

The new chancellor of the exchequer Rushi Sunak yesterday promised billions of pounds of investment in building new homes, and said Jenrick will today set out “comprehensive reforms to bring the planning system into the 21st century.”

Today’s announcement will be followed by a more detailed planning white paper in the spring.

The Budget documents said the reforms would not only seek to improve the current system, but will also “explore long-term reforms to the planning system, rethinking planning from first principles, to ensure the system is providing more certainty to the public, LPAs and developers.”

The Budget red book also promised that, in the short term, the reforms will raise the prospect of government intervention in local authorities which are failing to provide enough housing to meet determined need.

The budget documents said “These reforms will aim to create a simpler planning system and improve the capacity, capability and performance of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to accelerate the development process.

“Where LPAs fail to meet their local housing need, there will be firm consequences, including a stricter approach taken to the release of land for development and greater government intervention.

The announcement comes a year after former chancellor Philip Hammond promised to publish an “accelerated planning green paper” designed to tackle perceived delays and bottlenecks in the system. This was itself later delayed, then turned into a white paper, then ultimately postponed due to the calling of the December election.

The promise to re-think planning from first principles comes shortly after the arrival of Jack Airey, formerly the head of housing at right-leaning thinktank the Policy Exchange, as Number 10’s housing and planning adviser.

Shortly before he arrived at Number 10, a Policy Exchange report which he co-authored called for sweeping reforms to the planning system, including ending detailed land use allocations, introducing a binary zonal land use planning system and streamlining the role of local politicians when determining whether a development could go ahead.

Martin Feakes, Head of Buildings, Ramboll, welcomed the chancellor’s Budget announcements yesterday, but added: “It is the Secretary of State’s reforms on planning that will be most eagerly awaited by the sector and, surely, much more significant than one-off funds, to unlocking development sites and improving viability for developers.”

It is not certain that Airey’s Policy Exchange proposals will see the light of day. Stuart Andrews, head of planning and infrastructure consenting at law firm Eversheds Sutherland, said Jenrick’s announcement would “kick Jack Airey’s zoning ambitions into the long grass, and will go back to traditional ‘carrot and stick’ initiatives to bring councils into line.

“That is all fine, provided that the same mistakes are not made again in relaxing permitted development rights and any strategy to improve housing delivery has some real force,” Andrews added.