Amongst a raft of planning announcements made by the government today is a consultation on a new standard method for calculating housing need for local authorities. A standard method already exists, but the proposed new version would add extra elements to the calculation by taking into account existing housing stock levels, as well as an ‘affordability adjustment’ that accounts for changes in affordability over time.
Regarding the proposed amendments, Brett Spiller, Director at Chapman Lily, commented that ‘this reinforces the government’s aim to deliver more housing and reach its highly publicised target of delivering 300,000 new homes per annum. We note, however, that some areas would see their targets go up and others would fall. In an era when the government is talking about creating certainty for local communities, this will no doubt prove frustrating for councils that are currently preparing local plans and may have to adjust their strategies as a result’.
At Chapman Lily, we have compared a number of local authorities and see that the differences can be substantial:
| Council | Annual figure with current method | Annual figure with proposed method | Difference |
| BCP | 2,655 | 1,731 | -924 |
| Dorset | 1,793 | 2,075 | +283 |
| South Somerset | 685 | 612 | -73 |
| New Forest | 1,004 | 782 | -222 |
| Wiltshire | 2,006 | 2,917 | +911 |
We will be keeping a keen eye on how the consultation progresses. If you would like to know how the proposed reforms might affect you, feel free to get in touch.
