Back in 2010 and 2011, 'localism' and 'neighbourhood planning' were the new buzzwords in the planning world, full of promise and anticipation of sustainable development which took into account local needs and aspirations and encouraged real community engagement. And there have been some real success stories.
More than 400 successful neighbourhood planning referendums have now taken place across England. By spring 2017 a total of 112 London neighbourhood forums had or were in the process of adopting a neighbourhood plan. This is very impressive and illustrates the power and ability for communities to effect change. However, in respect of housing delivery, central government is taking a more active role than perhaps originally anticipated.
Since early 2018 the new catch phrase is 'the housing crisis' and recent announcements indicate that dealing with this has not been achieved through the idealistic localism agenda. Central government efforts to deal with the 'housing crisis' have so far included proposed revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (announced by the Prime Minster herself ) to support the pro-growth rhetoric and commencing an independent review, led by Sir Oliver Letwin to look and explain the gap between planning consents granted and actual housing delivery, especially in those areas of high demand.
There have also been increased levels of intervention by the Mayor of London and Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, both exercising their ability to call-in planning applications for their own determination.
Since May 2016 the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has begun using his hitherto rarely used power to call-in seven planning applications from London Boroughs including Bishopsgate Goodsyard (Hackney and Tower Hamlets), Citroen Site (Hounslow), National Institute for Medical Research (Barnet), Swandon Way (Wandsworth), Hale Wharf (Haringey), Palmerston Road (Harrow) and, most recently, Newcombe House (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) where specific reference was made to RBKC's significant under-delivery of housing within the borough.
Finally and perhaps most dramatically, following the identification of underperformance of fifteen planning authorities in 2017, Sajid Javid has for the first time indicated that he intends to exercise his powers to directly intervene in the plan-making process in Castle Point, Thanet and Wirral, who have still yet to produce a local plan since 2004. While the NPPF is helpful in the presumption of sustainable development in the absence of an up-to-date local plan, the existence of the NPPF should not absolve local planning authorities from positively providing a framework for development in their areas and, crucially, objectively assessing their housing need.
Our earlier observations would suggest that at a central and Greater London level, the answer to the housing crisis appears to be that a return to a somewhat top-down approach is necessary, much in contrast to the ideals of localism.
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