Property Week - Conservative Approach
19/03/2010
Developers in the North West are contemplating what life might be like if David Cameron were to win the impending general election.
If developers thrive on certainty and clarity in planning matters, then the upheaval of scrapped housing targets and abandoned regional strategies promises some difficult days under a possible Conservative government.
The Tories planning "green paper", published on 22 February, ripped up areas of significant planning policy. Bob Neill, shadow minister for local government and deputy chairman of the Conservative party, spent 30 minutes outlining the changes at Property Weeks North West 2010 conference last month, just before the paper was officially released.
Central to the Tories plans was the third-party right to appeal, which would allow local people to challenge planning decisions.
"Decision making needs to be more locally calibrated to ensure growth and efficiency," Neill Said. "the links between the governors and the governed need to be closer. At the moment, they are distorted towards London and the south east."
Arguably, the most contentious and alarming prospect for developers was the removal of regional strategy is out for consultation - and with it specific housing targets for local authority areas. A Tory government would set in motion legislation to do this in its first year in power.
Instead of regional development agencies setting annual targets, power would be given to local councils to proposed whatever target they wish. For the benefit of processing current applications and maintaining development, Neill recommends am interim position of maintaining five year land supplies and local plans. For how long is not clear.
Neill's objection to housing targets is not just about numbers. He returned repeatedly to the notion of electoral responsibility and the fact that regional development agencies are not elected.
"We would get rid of regional strategies because they don't have a democratic accountability", he said. The present system is not without its own controversy. When the regional strategy was introduced a decade ago, moratoria were implemented by councils, which already had residential consents that would satisfy their targets, much to the disappointment of housebuilders. But at least developers know what they are working with.
All sides of the planning process - council officers, elected councillors and developers - are hesitating in the confusion. Contentious schemes that councils may be minded to back to meet targets under the Labour regime might be easily forgotten if they can wipe the slate clean under the conservatives.
Rob White, Partner at NJL Consulting in Manchester says: "Authorities, especially those with large urban extension development proposed in the green belt, are sitting on their hands as much as possible while they wait to see what will happen to the planning landscape. This has made developers extremely nervous about committing a lot of money into an application."
White is advising a housebuilder on a large scheme next to the Manchester Ship Canal and says the regional strategy's support of the growth of the canal corridor under the Atlantic Gateway concept could be lost under the Conservatives.
"There is just a lot of doubt about how to proceed", he adds. "A lot of QC's say get in early with a planning application because a decision could be forced by appeal, even where authorities are hesitating. Others say it isn't worth it."
Advisers fear development will drift towards authorities that want it, but not necessarily where the market wants it. The government's growth point initiative identified planning authorities that volunteered to build more houses, crying out to burst their often stringent targets. Manchester, Trafford, Salford, Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, Halton, St Helens and Warrington, for example want more houses. By contrast, development of family houses in affluent commuter belt areas such as Wirral, Congleton and Macclesfield, where councils have in recent years been reluctant to support new applications, could freeze in the next five years.
Beyond the housing issue, the "green paper" says empowering councils would extend to their finances, allowing them to keep revenue from business rates - collected locally at present for six years being mooted. They would also have the right to go to market and raise bond finance.