PPS3 planning policy highlights housing design and brownfield developments

The government has called on local authorities to turn down housing developments unless they meet a range of requirements for design, sustainability, siting and environmental considerations under reforms to the planning system set out today.

Housing Minister Yvette Cooper announced the measures as part of the Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3), which she hoped would help local authorities deliver more and better homes.

She signalled that the new policy statement would give local authorities the ability to turn down developments on greenfield sites to stop developers “cherry picking” if they felt that brownfield targets were not being met.

She reiterated the government’s target to build at least 60% of new homes on brownfield land, saying: “Local authorities will need to take stronger action to bring more brownfield land back into use.”

The minister also pointed out that the document stressed an improvement in the quality of design, stronger environmental standards and a new emphasis on family homes that would require the planning system to consider the housing needs of children.

She commented: “What we want to see is developers having less need to spend their whole time explaining why more housing is needed in this area and spend a lot more time on actually improving the design and explaining why this is a good design for the area.”

Cooper signalled her continued focus on making sure that affordable housing is delivered, saying: “We are changing the definition of affordable housing so that we can concentrate public funding and planning contributions on genuinely affordable housing rather than simply lower cost market housing.”

She also indicated that local authorities would also be able to require developer contributions to affordable housing on smaller sites where viable, particularly in rural areas.

The minister said that councils would need to plan their housing strategies 15 years ahead to ensure a rolling five-year supply of sites to prevent housing being held-up by delays in the planning system.