Comment

National planning policy reforms: Beyond the housing headlines, what are the implications for town centres?

The second in our series on the Government’s consultation on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to national planning policy sees Director, Andrea Arnall look beyond the headline grabbing implications for housing and consider what the changes mean for town and city centres.

For more information on the effects of the changes on housing, please see our previous article.

Certainly, the direction to deliver more housing on brownfield sites in urban areas is good news , but this is not new policy and beyond this there is little to boost investment in our town and city centres. 

Whilst the fundamentals of the longstanding “town centre first principle” remain, including the sequential and impact tests and the cornerstone of delivering sustainable, mixed-use development in well-connected areas, we question whether national planning policy is working hard enough  to accelerate regeneration in our town centres.

Of course, the review of the NPPF is just one aspect of this Government's ongoing planning reforms, but as revised it feels like a missed opportunity for town centres and for levelling up.

If one looks beyond the core town centre policy principles, there are however some subtle changes that may have potential implications for town centres. They include the following: 

• Wider application of masterplans and design codes with new guidance on requiring ‘clear and accurate’ plans to demonstrate design quality, tied to planning conditions.
• Support for community-led developments – which could help revive town centres from the ground-up.
• The role of mansard roof extensions in delivering additional housing – oddly explicit example of densification in town centres and of limited practical benefit. 
• Delivering beauty – with potential implications on viability of complex town centre developments.
• Sanctions on slow build-out rates – could unfairly apply to town centres where development is complex and can take time. 
• Planning specifically for retirement housing and homes with care – could lead to more sites being allocated for this use in town centres.

Of more interest is what is yet to come later this year: 

• The inference that the top 20 towns and cities should accommodate the majority of housing needs has implications for how town centres in those locations will perform and evolve, with potentially significant consequences – both positive and negative.
• National Development Management policies – the detail is awaited but will a series of generic policies deal with town centres as a homogenous entity? Recent years have seen a proactive move away from ‘clone towns’ and any return to one size fits all policy could be counterproductive.

We explore what town centres really need to thrive in our video here. For more information on the changes, or to discuss our town centre work, please contact Andrea Arnall. 

19 January 2023