Housing and infrastructure: New government, new challenges?

Groundsure has written a blog that discusses housing and infrastructure and whether a new government means new challenges.

The new Labour government has raced out of the blocks within a couple of weeks of the election with a clear signal that they want to project a long-term focus on planning reform, housing and infrastructure investment.

What could this change in gear mean on the ground for housing, energy infrastructure, planning and our communities?

In her first speech, the new Chancellor, Rachel Reeves reversed out of the consultation of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and is now directing local authorities on new mandatory housing targets as well as lifting the ban on onshore wind farms.

The recent revisions to the NPPF last December gave Authorities greater powers to reject housing developments and reduced any requirement to meet local targets, while the current onshore wind farm ban has been in place since 2015.

Crucially, wind farm decisions will now be decided centrally, rather than on a local basis with communities. The sell in the past was that they could access subsidised renewable energy as part of the approval. It was clear that this was untenable in the face of greater community hostility on visual impacts in largely Conservative constituencies.

Restarting projects:

The changes mean that developments that have been frozen, are now being called in with a view to restarting them. Housing Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner will also have greater powers to decide on major developments.

In support of the launch of GB Energy, the new nationalised green power company which aims to raise £8.5bn on funding in the coming Parliament, the Chancellor has asked the new Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh and energy secretary Ed Miliband to prioritise decisions on delayed energy and infrastructure projects. New policy statements for critical infrastructure would be announced in the coming months, ahead of updating national policy statements within the year.

Priorities in Rayner’s in-tray include stalled schemes in Liverpool’s Central Dock area and in Worcester, Northstowe and Sutton Coldfield, totalling some 14,000 units.

And this doesn’t just extend to residential development. Rayner has already called in two data centre schemes in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. As a signal of intent, these developments are in the Green Belt and point to a reassessment of the scope of designation where critical energy and infrastructure in the national interest could outweigh it.

The 700,000 sq ft Buckinghamshire scheme project at the Court Lane Industrial Estate, Iver was turned down by local planners in October 2023, while a 900,000 sq ft facility on green belt land near Abbots Langley was rejected in January. While the Planning Inspectorate will call it in, the minister will decide as it is located in Green Belt.

Support withdrawn for fossil fuel developments:

And recognising that renewable energy infrastructure and resources are the answer, the Government will no longer defend the legal challenges against a controversial planned coal mine in Cumbria. The Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change were still expected to mount the challenge in the High Court unless the developer, West Cumbria Mining, also concedes the case.

Announcing the Government’s intention, Rayner admitted there had been an ‘error in law’ when permission for the Whitehaven coal mine was granted by her predecessor, Michael Gove, in December 2022. This comes after a major Supreme Court ruling last month, which concluded that Surrey County Council had acted unlawfully when it gave permission for oil drilling at Horse Hill, near Gatwick, without considering the emissions that would be produced when the oil was burned.

Likely precedents have therefore been set for future legal challenges where emissions are considered detrimental locally and to nationally set targets and policy commitments. In any case, the original planning approval was at odds with the UK’s commitment to radically reduce the amount of warming gases like carbon dioxide it produces that contribute to climate change. The Government had signed up to not add any more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 2050 and reduce emissions by 68% by 2030.

The Cumbrian mine decision is interesting as it identifies that cleaner energy goals in the national interest as a greater priority perhaps than maintaining growth and incomes in marginal communities. West Cumbria Mining, the proposed operator, had originally claimed that the mine would have created 500 jobs, with an additional 1500 in the supply chain supporting it.

The High Court will now decide if the original planning decision should be overturned. If it rules that the decision was incorrect, the application will go back to the Secretary of State to make a fresh decision.

Focus on the “grey belt”:

Another eye-catching announcement from Rachel Reeves related to land use protections – specifically poorer quality Green Belt land, often surrounded by existing development and now referred to as “grey belt”. These could include sites such as disused car parks or wasteland.

Knight Frank estimated back in January of this year that some 12% of land was designated as Green Belt and over 11,000 previously developed sites that comprise just 1% of the total green belt could deliver between 100-200,000 homes.

So, this could form an important contribution, especially where it offers infill around existing development and reactivates redundant land. This would also be in line with the policy of Brownfield First, which remains in place, with the Grey Belt forming a second wave.

The new Government are clearly going to look at where designations could shift to Grey Belt and this will no doubt form part of Local Authorities’ redrawn land use zoning for local plans and as part of their reassessment of their Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments (SHLAAs). This will provide some new insights on where these designations change and allow the creation of new datasets as this zoning changes.

Labour have stated a big goal – 1.5 million new homes within the term of the next Parliament, meaning an average pace of 300,000 homes per year, which has only come close to being achieved once in the 14 years of the Tory administration. Reeves and Rayner have made no secret of the fact that it could potentially set Government and Local Authorities and their communities against each other – and recent media headlines of “War on NIMBYs” underlines the battle lines being drawn.

But this Government has set out its stall. We need to increase housing supply – hopefully a balance of both private and social – to drive growth and investment and to ease our housing crisis. Whether there will be the resource in the construction industry remains to be seen, but by taking on planning reform and centralising decisions, the gloves are off to make changes – time will tell on how effective it will be.

Your client’s changing neighbourhood:

It is clear that the new Government’s sea-change on planning will bring some fairly radical change across more brownfield and grey belt sites in years to come. It will also herald an acceleration of onshore wind farm developments. Each of these may have impacts at a local level which will be important for your clients to stay across.

Our Avista report includes planning applications close to and up to 250 metres from your client’s property. It also details existing and planned energy and infrastructure projects that could affect the neighbourhood – whether from its proximity impact sight lines or noise and construction traffic, for example.

For more information on our Avista Environmental Report, which also helps answer 4 Law Society Guidance Notes on Contaminated Land, Flooding, Mining and Climate Change, call us on 01273 257 755 or email us on [email protected]