Comment
A confident step forward for Levelling Up
The Levelling Up White Paper was unveiled today in Parliament. Two years in the making – this is the centrepiece of Boris Johnson’s policy agenda. His big idea, his remaining shot at a positive legacy and a policy agenda that desperately needs to connect with voters at the next election.
What has emerged is a 300 plus page White Paper that is impressive in its scope if not its brevity. The paper is somewhat unwieldy and reminiscent of Mark Twain’s oft quoted “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”.
There are too many policy initiatives to summarise here and instead I focus on some key themes and implications arising from the White Paper. Spoiler alert for readers expecting to find clear implications for planning and development – the White Paper does not provide this clarity and we must look to the much awaited Planning Reforms White Paper.
Rome wasn’t built in a day
One of the striking features of the White Paper is the timescales over which it commits to delivery. Levelling Up is a long term undertaking with its 12 “missions” targeting improvements by the end of the decade in 2030. Cynics will undoubtedly state that this is kicking the can down the road – two general elections down the road to be precise. However, from the perspective of the scale and scope of the issues that are being addressed through Levelling Up a timescale of eight years does not seem unrealistic.
From a planning policy perspective, Levelling Up will be enshrined in law, and it will be interesting to note whether the NPPF and PPG are amended to include provisions for Levelling Up in plan making and decision taking. Clearly, local plans operate on longer timescales of typically 15 years – timescales which would enable significant progress to be made on Levelling Up. Local Plans (and planning more generally) should be an enabler of Levelling Up by ensuring sufficient supply of land and premises at the right time, in the right places and in providing healthy and investable places. Even though the planning system does not comprehensively control all of the Levelling Up levers, it nonetheless has a very important role to play in enabling positive change.
…but there is a need to act swiftly
It is striking that in the same week the White Paper is published that house price inflation figures of 11% were reported for the year to January 2022. House prices continue to outpace improvements in personal income and the housing crisis deepens every year. Rising living costs intensify this crisis and serve to prevent many from accessing decent housing. There is a housing crisis now and Levelling Up must be synonymous with boosting supply now. This is a feature of the White Paper, although through the relatively narrow prism of development on brownfield land and a welcome championing and delivery role for Homes England.
The long-term regenerative benefits associated with delivering new homes on, often highly visible, brownfield sites must be a priority to unlock much wider commercial and social benefits. However, it will not alone provide the homes we need now, nor the breadth of tenures to ensure those most in need have a roof over their head. These are issues which affect those areas classified as in need of ‘levelling-up’ but also nearly every corner of the country. The White Paper opts for a partial solution in focusing on brownfield land, whereas to make a tangible difference to the housing crisis (and inter alia its’ positive contribution to Levelling Up) it is necessary to promote all forms of land supply. The £1.8bn brownfield fund will, it is purported, unlock 160,000 additional homes which is to be welcomed but is by no means sufficient to solve the housing supply crisis.
Reforming the rules
The White Paper positively removes the ‘80/20 rule’ which saw funding supply being directed almost exclusively to ‘maximum affordability areas’. While this reform is progressive we must not forget that the scale of need in these areas has not evaporated as the result of a new policy paradigm. Similarly, whilst requiring all homes in the private rented sector to meet a minimum standard will, hopefully, serve to materially improve the lives of many households living in the worst of conditions it will not solve deeper problems regarding the inadequate pace at which the supply of homes responds to demand.
…but planning reform is deferred to another day
As a planner I eagerly await the Levelling Up “asks” of the planning system - hopefully to be addressed by the rapid release of a sister Planning Reforms White Paper.
The White Paper is largely silent on planning reform save for references to exploring how CIL can be used to support neighbourhood and community activity, the proposed use of local design codes and an ambiguous reference to ‘further greening the Green Belt’ in England. These issues, in my view, fall well short of capturing the full role the planning system can play in enabling Levelling Up. For example, in order to assist in making Local Plans ‘simpler and shorter’, whilst ensuring that they address both the ‘housing-crisis’ and Levelling Up, the rapid introduction of a new progressive approach to calculating the minimum need for housing must be a priority.
The next attempt to correct the “algorithm” must not constrain those areas not classified as being in need of Levelling Up but in which the failures to plan positively for a new supply of homes have already seen affordability levels reach unprecedented levels. Similarly, it must recognise those areas where continued private investment and future economic success, including but importantly not limited to those areas targeted for Levelling Up, will drive higher levels of demand as they plan for the attraction and retention of new communities.
I would also hope to see “asks” of the planning system which serve to positively deliver against widely vaunted objectives of place-making and regeneration. Finally, I would hope to see, where this White Paper has failed to deliver, a commitment to new resources to ensure that local planning authorities have the capacity and skills to play their critical role in delivering and implementing change.
The Verdict
The White Paper is a confident step forward for Levelling Up and sets the blueprint for policy and future negotiations with counties and Combined Mayoral Authorities. Its’ timescales are realistic and its’ scope is necessarily wide, covering issues of social and physical capital. Although it is acknowledged that Levelling Up will only be delivered over a longer timescale, the White Paper remains largely silent on issues demanding swift action including tackling the housing crisis and providing urgent clarity on planning reform.
Please contact Antony Pollard if you wish to discuss the Levelling Up White Paper.
2 February 2022