The Government has published its full response to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) consultation.

The Government received over 10,000 responses to the consultation, and the document published last week includes some refinements to the proposals set out in the original document.

Under new planning rules, updated via the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF):

• Councils will be told to play their part to meet housing need, with new immediate mandatory housing targets for councils to ramp up housebuilding and deliver growth across the country putting more money in working people’s pockets.
• Areas with the highest unaffordability for housing and greatest potential for growth will see housebuilding targets increase, while stronger action will ensure councils adopt up-to-date local plans or develop new plans that work for their communities. 
• A new common-sense approach will be introduced to the greenbelt. While remaining committed to a brownfield first approach, the updated NPPF will require councils to review their greenbelt boundaries to meet targets, identifying and prioritising lower quality ‘grey belt’ land.   
• Any development on greenbelt must meet strict requirements, via the new ‘golden rules’, which require developers to provide the necessary infrastructure for local communities, such as nurseries, GP surgeries and transport, as well as a premium level of social and affordable housing.
• To further tackle the housing crisis, councils and developers will also need to give greater consideration to social rent when building new homes and local leaders have greater powers to build genuinely affordable homes for those who need them most.   

Updated Timetables for Local Plan Preparation

In light of the changes to the NPPF, the Deputy Prime Minister has asked that all local planning authorities produce an updated Local Development Scheme (LDS) within 12 weeks of the publication of the NPPF, i.e. by no later than 6 March 2025.

The updated LDS should include clear, realistic, and specific dates for consultation and submission of the local plan.

Question 54 – Rural Affordable Housing

The NPPF consultation included over 100 questions and the Governments response to these has also been published at this link.

Question 54 in the consultation specifically focused on rural affordable housing.

What measures should we consider to better support and increase rural affordable housing?

A total of 1,254 respondents answered this question.

Key points:

• Respondents suggested additional and better targeted funding to support the delivery of affordable housing in rural areas, both as capital grant and resource funding to provide the necessary capacity within local authorities, housing associations and others. Respondents also supported making more use of rural exception sites. Respondents recognised the value of the national network of Rural Housing Enablers (RHEs) in bringing housing development forward in rural areas and the need for their support to be maintained.
• The importance of optimising the amount of affordable housing on individual development sites was widely acknowledged among respondents. The key issue raised here was the threshold below which affordable housing contributions should not be sought. There is also ambiguity over whether the policy allows a threshold to be set for sites of between 5 and 10 units.

Government response

The government is aware of higher costs of delivery in rural areas and we want to see more affordable housing in these areas as part of our ambition to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.

We recognise the strong support that was given to rural exception sites and the potential for encouraging them to be brought forward in greater numbers.

We are committed to improving the quality of life for people living and working in rural areas. We intend to give further consideration to how policy can better promote rural affordable housing and wider exceptions site policy as part of our work to produce a set of national policies for decision making in 2025.

The Rural Services Network has produced a summary document highlighting our initial responses to the published NPPF.  It also includes some of the key questions for rural, our response to them and the now published Government response.  You can access it at this link.

The Rural Services Network has long campaigned for affordable housing in our rural communities.  With high house prices, a shortage of long term lets and wages earned in the rural economy being lower than the national average, it can be challenging to access a rural affordable home.

Whatever the Governments target to deliver on housing, there is a need for the right homes, at the right tenure, in the right places and these MUST have access to services, healthcare and the infrastructure to access them.

Despite 1,254 responses to this question, the Government has yet to provide guidance to target the delivery of affordable housing in rural communities and we now await the national policies for decision making in 2025.