Government reforms to fast-track housing
Yesterday the Government made several announcements to support the delivery of new homes prior to the release of another revised version of the NPPF, which is promised before the end of the year. From a transport planning perspective, the two announcements below stood out.
Unleashing development around rail stations
Development within a ‘reasonable’ walking distance of a ‘well-connected’ train or tram station will now benefit from a strong presumption in favour of approval or a “default yes”. This will be subject to certain ‘rules’ based on quality and density and extends to land within the Green Belt.
As ever, the devil will be in the detail, but this is clearly a positive step in the push for long-term modal shift and backs up a key principle of the NPPF in that “significant development should be focused on locations which are or can be made sustainable”. Key will be ensuring that station adjacent developments are well-integrated with supporting facilities so that day-to-day facilities that cannot be accessed by rail can still be reached by sustainable means. In addition, faster decisions for station-led development shouldn’t mean weaker consideration for other forms of sustainable travel, such as active travel and bus integration. Multi-modal connectivity should be at the core of these developments.
Streamlining statutory consultees
The Government plans to make reforms to the statutory consultation process. From a transport perspective, there is an aim to reduce the number of applications requiring input from bodies such as National Highways and Active Travel England by up to 40%.
From an ATE point of view, this is likely to mean the thresholds for their involvement will increase (currently set at developments over 150 housing units, 7,500 m2 of floorspace or an area of 5 hectares). The specifics on how this will be achieved are pending, so this is one to watch!
Rovia will continue to champion development that supports growth whilst putting sustainable travel at the centre of placemaking. If you have any questions or need support navigating the planning system, please feel free to reach out.
