Draft planning framework is a golden chance to supply much-needed homes

The draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has been welcomed by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) for setting out a “simpler and consolidated approach to planning” and which “directly seeks to tackle the huge challenges around housing supply and affordability”.

Grainia Long, CIH interim chief executive, said: “Over the last thirty years the failure to build the homes we need has left this country with a housing crisis which has resulted in a shortage of 142,000 homes every year.

“The housing crisis is not new, but the proposed draft national planning policy framework provides a golden opportunity to provide part of the solution. The Government has recognised that something has to be done to simplify the planning process and we applaud this. The reforms to planning will allow more homes to be built giving the thousands of people, who do not currently have one, a decent place to live.

“The draft National Planning Policy Framework is clear in its aims; it wants to provide freedom for every community to have the homes that they need. But to make this work, local authorities must take the lead in driving this forward; they must engage with residents and decide when to make the case for new housing that helps local people and economies.”

The framework seeks to make it easier to get homes built, which gives a great opportunity for a general increase in the amount of new homes in the right places, the CIH said. There is a real imperative for strong local authority leadership to ensure effective approaches to planning at the local level. Being firm and clear in the identification of land will enable widespread fears about development in unsuitable areas – such as the green belt – to be allayed, the organisation added.