Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Accepted in Part
Delay abolishing the Duty to Cooperate until a new regional housing alignment policy is published
Recommendation
The Government should ensure that the new alignment policy requires local authorities to work together on housing delivery, or introduce other mechanisms to encourage regional cooperation between local authorities on housing delivery. The detail of the new alignment policy must be defined, consulted on, and a final policy published, before the Duty to Cooperate is abolished. The Government should therefore delay abolishing the Duty to Cooperate until its future review of the NPPF, in order to ensure that there is no gap between the abolition of the Duty to Cooperate and the implementation of the new alignment policy. (Paragraph 68) Local planning authority resourcing
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the need for continued cooperation, stating the Duty to Cooperate will remain in place until June 2025, and intends to introduce new joint spatial development strategies and supplementary plans to encourage regional cooperation.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
As part of the Changes to the current planning system1 consultation (August 2020) we stated that the standard method for local housing need at the time was inconsistent with our aim to deliver 300,000 homes annually. After carefully considering the feedback to the consultation, we made changes to the standard method to help enable the Government’s objectives of delivering 300,000 homes a year and to tackle affordability challenges in the places people most want to live, while also directing growth to support the regeneration of brownfield sites and renewing and levelling up our towns and cities. The cities and urban centres uplift directs more homes into our largest urban centres located across the country which supports our aims to level up. 14 of the 20 areas uplifted are in the North and Midlands. As well as making the most of brownfield land, increasing home-building in existing urban areas supports other objectives including maximising the use of existing infrastructure, taking advantage of structural change in urban land uses, and reducing the need for unnecessary travel. As set out in the December 2022 consultation we want to make sure the standard method commands long-term support based on the most relevant data. We intend to review the approach to assessing housing needs following the release of the next household projections data based on the 2021 Census. Co-operation between local planning authorities will remain an aspect of plan making. To address cross boundary and strategic issues that affect more than one planning authority and to encourage closer working together, we intend to retain joint local plans and minerals and waste plans and introduce new joint spatial development strategies and joint supplementary plans. We are proposing that plan-makers have until 30 June 2025 to submit their local plans and all existing legal duties and requirements, including the duty to cooperate, will still apply.