Introduction
In this blog post, we discuss the consultation on the new draft London Plan guidance on affordable housing and development viability recently published by the Greater London Authority and also provide an update on the progression of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill through Parliament.
Consultation on Draft London Plan Guidance on Affordable Housing and Development Viability
In May 2023, the Greater London Authority (GLA) published consultation drafts of two new London Plan guidance on affordable housing and development viability. These consultation drafts can be accessed at the website links below:
https://consult.london.gov.uk/affordable-housing-guidance
https://consult.london.gov.uk/development-viability-guidance
The consultation closes on 24 July 2023.
The new guidance documents are intended to replace the current guidance contained in the GLA’s 2017 Supplemental Planning Guidance on Affordable Housing and Viability and anyone who regularly works on residential development schemes in London and is involved with advising on viability issues or the negotiation of section 106 legal agreements containing affordable housing provision and review mechanisms for these schemes, will be very familiar with the guidance contained in this SPG.
There will now be two separate guidance documents which are updated to reflect the 2021 London Plan, one covering Affordable Housing and one Development Viability. The Affordable Housing guidance will deal with the threshold approach, affordable housing tenure, grant funding and build to rent, and the Development Viability guidance will deal with the viability assessment process and the review mechanisms and formulae for this.
Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill Update
At Planning Clarity Legal we have been tracking the progress of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (the Bill) since its introduction to Parliament. The Bill has now entered the report stage in the House of Lords following a detailed debate of the Bill at the committee stage which has resulted in several amendments to the Bill.
The current version of the Bill as amended at the committee stage can be downloaded at the website link below:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3155
The amendments made to the provisions of the Bill relate to the street votes process, urgent crown development, errors in completion notices, a Local Planning Authority’s duty to provide for self and custom build housing, providing for remotely conducted planning appeals, allowing certain prescribed bodies to charge for advice on planning applications, as well as amendments relating to the introduction of the Infrastructure Levy (notably, there is a new exemption for registered charities and maintenance, improvement or upgrading costs can now be funded by the Levy).
In our view, the most important amendment to the Bill relates to the extension of the power of Local Planning Authorities to refuse to determine planning applications from a person who has previously made an application for planning permission for development of land which is in the Local Planning Authority’s area at the time the current application is made if the previous application has not been implemented or is being built out unreasonably slow. This power previously was limited only to applications for developments on the same development site.
Note: all comments and views expressed in this blog are merely opinions and provided for information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice which can be relied upon. Should you require legal advice on a matter then please contact us
