Planning: the good,

the bad, and the

beautiful

Victoria Hills MRTPI

Victoria Hills MRTPI, Chief Executive, RTPI

THE

GOOD

Reasons to be positive about

planning for housing

Permissions and completions• Net additional dwellings highest

since 2007-8, up 78% since 2012-13

to 222,190

• Latest - 351,700 homes granted

permission in year to June 2018

• More applications decided with in

target period

30

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

% d

ecid

ed in

tar

get

per

iod

No

. of

app

licat

ion

s

English residential planning applications (approved and decided within target period)

Total approved residential planning applications Total decided in target period

Source: MHCLG Live Table T120a

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Local authorities returning to housebuilding

• 2017 RTPI research led by Prof

Janice Morphet from UCL

• 65% of local authorities directly

involved in housing provision

and only 9% not involved at all

• Table of activity for every English

council

• Now strong support from

Government

• Phase 2 research to be

published soon focusing on role

of planning

4

THE

BAD

Areas where planning for

housing is not going well

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Resourcing of local planning authorities

• National Audit Office: recent

report identified a 40% fall in real

expenditure by local authorities

on planning and said they were

not on track to meet Govt targets

• Local authorities increasingly

reliant on revenue raising (pre-

apps and PPAs)

• 2018 RTPI research on

resourcing in SE and NW found

shift from placeshaping activities

to core statutory functions

• 20% fee increase will not fill this

resource gap

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Failures in planning for housing

• Many local authorities still not adopted up-to-date local plans

• Failure to link housing and infrastructure

• Lack of monitoring

Source: RTPI, Location of Development, 2018

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Failures in affordability

• House price to earnings ratio

up to 7.9 in 2017 and rising

each year

• Increasing reliance on S106

to fund affordable housing at

expense of other crucial

social and physical

infrastructure.

• Despite this just 4600 homes

for social rent completed in

2017-18

MHCLG, 2018

Lord et al (2018)

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Gap between permissions and delivery

9

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Homes permitted, started and completed in England

Permissions Starts Completions

Source: Table 213 House building: permanent dwellings started and completed, by tenure1, England (quarterly)2, 3Source: Glenigan planning permission data cited in MHCLG (2018)

Permitted development

10 Photo: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

THE

BEAUTIFUL

RTPI Awards for Planning

Excellence

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Enfield Small Sites Programme, HTA Design

credit: Peter Barber and Enfield Council

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

The Nelson Project, Plymouth City Council

13

Credit: Interserve

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Carrowbreck Meadow, NPS Group

14

Credit: Jefferson Smith

THE

FUTURE

The future of planning and

RTPI’s role in securing it

The Housebuilding Forum 2019: Victoria Hills, RTPI.

Better planning for quality &

affordable housing

• Taking a strategic view

• Building strong and responsive

local planning authorities

• Creating policy and investment

environments that promote

housing affordability

• Developing and diversifying the

housing sector

• Making the most of data and

new technology

16

Thanks for listening

Victoria Hills MRTPI

@VictoriaRTPI