The biggest threat to local planning at the moment is the inability to plan locally. Either through plans being withdrawn, redone, or simply paused, seemingly indefinitely, waiting some clarity on policy from government. As stated many times on this blog the biggest problem with local plan making is the fact that so many local councilors dislike and see as politically toxic the whole process. To the extent that the NPPF threat of ‘build what you like where you like’ is becoming less and less of a threat when you don’t have a 5yhls. The backlog of housing sites is so great that local politicians are increasingly unprepared to allocate enough standard method sites in one go.
A prime example of this is Basildon, where last night by way of an emergency motion to a full council meeting the whole plan was withdrawn, two years into an EIP and at the point where final main modification were to be agreed paving the way to adoption. Compare to South Oxfordshire where potential withdrawl was flagged first at Cabinet, enabling the SoS is issue a holding direction.
No chance here, clearly Basildon had watched and learned. Since 2011 there is no longer a requirement to notify in advance the SoS of withdrawl and get permission. So expect now many more local plans to be put in a holding pattern, either by withdrawl or simply inaction to submission.
What a mess, especially as in cases such as Basildon where there has been years of argument and debate and any sound plan is likely to be the same substantially as what is before the inspector now, especially as the most controversial element is to reduce brownfield housing in Basildon Town Centre, despite Basildon losing appeals on these site with regularity.
Would the South Essex Joint Strategic Plan help, yes there are a few cross border sites that would help, but primarily the political imperative is not to plan, by whatever means, and a solution which means slightly better plans for planners is a negative to politicians if it means bigger better sites coming forward t all. The South Essex Joint Strategic Plan, as I have said for three years, is dead as a dodo.
What is worse the new planning SoS looks completely impotent and many many authorities may follow Basildon and withdraw or ‘pause’. The SoS needs to act decisively. Once a local plan is more than five years old (or less of the previous inspector demanded an early review) +5% should be added to the standard method buffer each and every year, replacing every other uplift and the housing delivery test (which because of adhoc last minute changes and lack of predictability has become a farce), once a plan trip 10 years plus put of date the NPPG ‘presumption against’ for Green Belt should disapply – becoming like any other local plan policy capable of being out of date. Affordable housing, transport investment and levelling up funding should only be spent on local authorities that have up to date local plans. SoS show you have some balls and some teeth.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 
Such an approach would focus minds and strongly encourage investment in LA policy teams but needs cross-departmental coordination. I suspect in the short term it will reward those LAs that still have functioning policy teams (ie not one man and his dog) but also more importantly have the political cover/support to get a plan through. TBH some LAs might like pulling up the drawbridge, not making the hard choices, and blaming PINS for all their woes.
The problem is the imposition of high housing targets that in reality take no account for the capacity of an area to accommodate development and infrastructure, environmental and highways constraints. Perhaps Andrew, you would like to visit Basildon and South Essex to understand the issues facing Councillors and Planners there. Happy to give you a tour.
I’ve worked extensively there. Capacity to build 10 s of thousands of new homes