John Rhodes delivers keynote speech at Planning for Housing Conference

John Rhodes from Quod was on one of the keynote speakers at the annual Planning for Housing Conference, held at the ILEC Conference Centre in London on 4 October 2017.

The conference is the annual national gathering for key players within the public and private sectors to congregate, debate and discuss key challenges when it comes to not only planning for housing but also ensuring that planned housing is actually delivered.

John was one of the key speakers at a breakout session for Housing Need Assessment and Local Plan Making – The Implications of the Housing White Paper where John drew on his work as a member, and Chair, of the Local Plans Expert Group (LPEG) established by the Government in 2015 to consider how local plans can be made more efficient and effective.

The session focussed on:

• The extent and status of Local Plans to boost significantly the supply of housing;
• The principal problems identified by the LPEG in the preparation of Local Plans and Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs) for example;
• An analysis of the standardised method of calculating objectively assessed need (OAN) for housing proposed by the DCLG in its consultation document “Planning for the right homes in the right places: consultation proposals” (expires 9 November 2017) vs LPEG’s recommendations;
• The challenges for LPAs in meeting housing need with reference to the green belt and the duty to corporate drawing from case studies.

A copy of John’s presentation can be downloaded here.

Speaking after the event John Rhodes said: “Whilst welcoming the principle of a standardised methodology, it is important to recognise that housing needs will not be met without a strong commitment from government to actually delivering the numbers, not just calculating them. There needs to be a determined approach to ensure housing delivery”.

Image via Planning Resource