NHC response to Planning for the Right Homes in the Right Places

The Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) has responded to Government proposals to reform the planning system to increase the supply of new homes and increase local authority capacity to manage growth.  The full consultation response is available here.

The proposals are focused on providing the potential for greater pace, simplicity, and transparency in the planning process.  We support this; however, the supply of the right homes in the right places needs to have recognition of the planning system as a significant driver of economic growth and quality of life through its importance in place-making.

We support a streamlined and simplified process, but we are concerned that a standard approach as a way of calculating local housing need will not allow for the complexity and unique needs of local housing markets, which vary significantly from place to place.  For many parts of the North, we believe the standard methodology will create challenges with the alignment between housing need and economic growth and regeneration.