London Plan Housing SPG

The Greater London Authority has this week published a new supplementary planning guidance document (SPG) on the increasingly momentous subject of housing. The document follows a twelve week public consultation period for a draft interim version of the guidance document which took place in summer 2015.

The SPG replaces the previous 2012 Housing SPG in order to reflect the changes imposed through the application of ‘Further Alterations to the London Plan’ (FALP) and ‘Minor Alterations to the London Plan’ (MALP) in March 2015 and March 2016 respectively.

The new SPG guidance covers a range of topics with the overarching aim of increasing London’s supply of high quality, affordable homes. This includes new guidance for the introduction of covenanted build to rent developments which are residential schemes secured for private rent for a fixed period of typically 15 years where, due to affordable housing requirements, the development would otherwise be considered unviable.

However, the SPG has been published in the background of the Housing and Planning Bill which is currently progressing through parliament. The bill proposes significant reforms for affordable housing, particularly in the form of the government’s starter homes initiative, and as such the affordable housing chapter is still in draft and has not been included within the SPG at this stage.

The Housing SPG can be found here.  If you have any queries regarding the new SPG, please feel free to contact one of the Firstplan team.