East Of England Housing Delivery Test Results
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the 2020 Housing Delivery Test results on the 19th January 2021. The Housing Delivery Test (HDT) is an annual measurement of housing delivery within the different Local Planning Authorities across England.
In order to take account of the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, March 2020 has been removed from the figures to slightly reduce the required delivery rates (a total of 35 rather than 36 months are included).
As required by the National Planning Policy Framework, any authority which measures under 75% of their housing delivery target for the three preceding years will be subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development. This can have significant implications for the affected authorities, with their policies for housing being treated as out-of-date, thus providing opportunities for new housing development in areas where planning policy would have previously restricted this.
Boyer’s Colchester office has collated the results for the East of England region into a user friendly format illustrating the consequences for local planning authorities in this area. There is a strong correlation between the authorities that have performed poorly in the latest results not having an up to date local plan, and / or having a significant proportion of their land in the Green Belt, which restricts development.
If we can advise you further regarding the implications of any of the results, please do get in touch. We are in the process of preparing a full Local Plan update for the eastern region which we will be issuing in the coming weeks.