Take part in consultation on planning reform

Letter published by the West Sussex County Times 8 August 2024.

Dear Sir

Take part in consultation

The consultation on the government’s ‘Proposed Reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system’ opened 30 July and will close 11.45pm, 24 September.

Proposed changes include a ‘New Standard Method for assessing housing needs’, which “requires local authorities to plan for numbers of homes that are proportionate to the size of existing communities, by taking 0.8 per cent of existing stock as a floor”, and

“tops up this baseline by focusing on those areas that are facing the greatest affordability pressures, using a stronger affordability multiplier to increase this baseline in proportion to price pressures”.

The ‘Outcome of the proposed revised method’, which accompanies the ‘Proposed Reforms’ document, details indicative New Standard Method annual targets for each of England’s planning authorities.

The New Standard Method would increase Horsham District’s 917 dwellings pa standard-method target to 1294 pa, an uplift of 41 percent.

Over the 17 years of the Horsham District Regulation 19 plan, 1,294 pa would total 21,998 new dwellings, and to accommodate them sites additional to those allocated in the Regulation 19 plan will need to be allocated.

Furthermore, Horsham District in compliance with government diktat must accommodate some of the ‘unmet housing needs’ (also increased by the New Standard Method) of Brighton and Hove, Chichester, Adur and Worthing– and perhaps some Surrey councils too.

All who care for the future of our district should take part in this pivotal consultation.

Yours faithfully,

Dr R F Smith

Trustee CPRE Sussex

The consultation is at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposed-reforms-to-the-national-planning-policy-framework-and-other-changes-to-the-planning-system