UK Land Planning

Developing on English Land Today - UDP vs. LDF

English land is at the centre of a political storm: the UK is in the midst of a housing crisis. The failure of successive governments to build sufficient homes on UK land for a booming population has created an acute housing shortfall and some of the highest property prices in the world.

Immigration onto UK land is causing the population to swell by 500 people a day. Furthermore, longer life expectancy, higher divorce rates and the trend for single person occupancy are placing unprecedented pressure on housing and land with planning.

But these factors alone, nor the fact that English land is naturally in short supply (which of course it is), does not explain the crisis. The cumbersome UK land planning framework, with all of its land use planning restrictions, must bear some responsibility. As a consequence UK land with planning permission carries a premium.

Belatedly, the government is addressing this issue through the UK land planning permission framework. One of the main reasons house building stagnated in the last thirty years was the control afforded to local councils to award or deny land planning permission. Often, because awarding planning permission on English land was electorally unpopular, land planning applications would be denied.

Under the new, emerging land planning regime, house building targets are set at the regional level and must be adhered to at the local level. Unitary Development Plans (the old land planning regime) are being superseded at a macro level by Regional Plans and the Local Development Framework at a micro level (which collectively comprises the new land planning regime).

For the purposes of allocating planning land for development, Regional Assemblies have authority conferred on them by the Secretary of State. English land without planning permission has effectively been liberated from the draconian control of local councils to more progressive, realistic regional bodies which will ensure houses are built in sufficient supply. English land without planning permission is set to be allocated for land use planning on a scale not seen since before the Second World War.

Land owners and property developers must now seek land use planning permission via the relevant Regional Plan and the corresponding Local Development Framework. Housing requirements for any given region (which is important in land planning permission applications) can be ascertained at the Regional Plan level; these are then filtered through to each Local Development Framework. For a successful land planning application, the site must then be reallocated under the LDF.