The pressure on local authorities to produce more housing has increased in the past few years and continues to do so. Successive governments propose housing targets in a way that becomes ever more focussed on individual local authorities and the ‘punishments’ for failing to produce sufficient housing merely make it less likely that a local authority can provide a sufficiently timely supply of new sites that corresponds with local views that often run counter to ambitions to produce the right housing in the right place. Imposition of targets merely makes local populations more hostile.  Government imposed Standard Methods of identifying housing needs in individual local authority areas continues as a national strategy but solves little. Expect a revised NPPF in early 2025 with further updates and targets. The struggle to meet five-year housing targets means that some local authorities are overwhelmed and find themselves on the wrong site of appeal debates about the presumption in favour of development in the NPPF.

At ASP, we are more than familiar with the way in which the planning system fails to meet the demands placed upon it, not merely in terms of housing numbers but in terms of the ever-increasing detailed level of information required to be provided, and the increasing emphasis placed upon it. In rural Districts and Counties, the constraints make positive planning difficult or impossible, and the perception of developers remains at the lowest ebb – the enemy. At the other end of the spectrum, the failure of some local authorities to produce up to date local plans, and to rely on policies that are sometimes 20 years old and practically irrelevant to solving today’s conundrums cannot be the right way to manage a system.

We see this in all the areas in which we operate – throughout the southeast and East Anglia, as well as farther afield. Our present portfolio of work includes consultancy advice on residential schemes of varying sizes and in a wide range of locations. Our role in most cases is as lead consultant, reporting directly to the client, formulating and implementing a tactical approach and managing a larger development team of specialist consultants. Current residential development instructions range from one or two units up to proposals for around 400, in a range of local authorities in Kent, Surrey, East and West Sussex and East Anglia.

The requirements of the planning system increase year on year in an ad hoc way as each fresh initiative comes into being. Biodiversity Net Gain is a relatively new introduction, but the regulations regarding its creation and management have been a shambles.

But what is our part in all this, as a consultancy seeking to achieve a better outcome than before and a consensus view between all those engaged in the system/ It is to try to occupy a middle ground and to seek to produce developments that meet the requirements of clients and can be found acceptable locally with careful explanation and understanding. We like to think we achieve that.