Decision day looms on council homes targets

Planning, 30 January 2009

As the 1 April deadline approaches, the next round of local area agreement (LAA) targets is now being finalised by councils. A provisional selection was made last summer from the basket of 198 outcome indicators. Local delivery is now being firmed up for implementation.

What happens locally will have a significant impact on those preparing local development frameworks (LDFs) and particularly core strategies, because they will need to demonstrate accountable delivery of these LAA target outcomes as part of achieving soundness.

For the many planners used to considering how the regional spatial strategy (RSS) housing allocations can best be incorporated into the LDF, the LAA process is a new way of agreeing housing numbers.

Unlike the RSS, where numbers are challengeable and tested, specific delivery numbers are identified in the LAA for each year. Three of the national indicators have immediate relevance - NI154 refers to net homes, NI155 to gross increase in affordable homes and NI159 to availability of sites.

It is important to note that LAAs are seen as voluntary agreements and these housing targets, as all the others, will be regarded as firm. In the core strategy, there will need to be a clear demonstration of how these indicators will be delivered as well as the infrastructure delivery planning and evidence that will underpin them.

Most LAAs have at least one of these three national indicators for housing. Firming up the final numbers or proportions of housing to be delivered as contracted through the LAA from April is an important process. The figures will in place until 2012.

In the current financial climate, some authorities are attempting to change or suspend targets pending economic recovery. However, once agreed, there will be someone responsible for each target in the LAA together with a delivery plan. Where the LAA does not contain a specific national indicator, it still has to monitor progress against all 198.

A number of other targets relevant to the LDF may be included in the LAA. NI175 on access to services and facilities by public transport, walking and cycling could have a significant influence on infrastructure delivery, as could NI197 on improving biodiversity, NI171 on business registration and NI005 on general satisfaction with the area.

So what to do now? First, check which targets are in your LAA. Second, get involved in their finalisation and third, ensure that the LAA co-ordinator is aware of the LDF's role in delivery across a range of targets, not just those for housing.

- Janice Morphet is a director of RMJM Consulting and visiting professor at University College London's Bartlett School of Planning. For more information on LAAs, please visit www.localpriorities.communities.gov.uk and www.idea.gov.uk