To consider the report by the Senior Planning Policy Officer (attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Senior Planning Policy Officer regarding the Revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and other changes to the planning system (circulated previously). 

The Planning Policy Team Leader (IR) presented the report to the Committee and confirmed that:

• The report highlighted the key changes to the revised NPPF published on 12^th December 2024 focusing on the implications of plan making plus how it fitted with the wider on-going planning reform.  This followed a consultation earlier in the summer (2024).
• The local housing need is an unconstrained assessment of the minimum number of houses that the government expects us to be looking to deliver for the area.
  It gives us our starting point for how we have to consider how much housing we should be delivering to the area. It's not the end point and we can take into account local constraints (such as the natural landscape/flood risk areas).
• North Devon is in the unusual position where the district boundary is different to the local planning authority boundary because of Exmoor National Park and there was some discretion in the method used as data was only available at the district level.
• A summary of the changes, written by the Local Government Association, was included in appendix A.
• The government consulted on changes to the NPPF and, following a previous meeting of JPPC, officers sent a joint response to the government.
• The most significant change is to the local housing need for the plan area, through changes to the NPPF and the associated standard methodology which was set out in the guidance. It provided councils with a starting point for how many homes they should plan for through their local plan. The Local Housing Need was calculated using the standard methodology. Normal planning considerations had not been discarded.
• The government have confirmed the new standard methodology as discussed at the last JPPC, with a small adjustment to the affordability multiplier. This resulted in a joint housing need for the 2 districts (including the Exmoor National Park Area of North Devon) of 1,330 dwellings per annum, comparted to the previous methodology which would give a figure of 714.
• One noted change, from the 2023 version of the NPPF, was that there was no option to use an alternative calculation for the Local Housing Need.
• Transitional arrangements were in place – particularly around new housing need.

• Appendix B provided a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister in which she required all local authorities to submit a revised Local Development Scheme to the government by 6^th March 2025. The Committee would need to ratify the scheme at the end of February 2025. 
• A consultation on the new policies was expected in Spring 2025, with levelling up taking place in Autumn 2025.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Planning Policy Team Leader advised that:

• Both Authorities had allocated funds within annual budgets towards consultancy costs.
• An update to the Landscape Character Assessment had been completed.
• Identifying locations for renewable energy development were discretionary – it was for the Authorities to consider their approach in the Local Plan.
• In previous years approximately 800 dwellings have been delivered each year. Rarely had a figure of 1,300 been attained so it was a stretched target for the area. It required the housing sector to reform in order to meet the targets.

RESOLVED that the report on Revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and other changes to the planning system be noted.