The Conservatives won the election - so what does this mean for planning?

After months of uncertainty, policy announcements and campaigning, we finally know the outcome of the 2019 election and who will form the next government. The Conservative Party under the leadership of Boris Johnson have gained 48 seats, growing its number of MPs to 365, giving the party a 39-seat majority until 2024. This makes the Conservative majority the largest for any party since the 2001-05 Labour government, which wielded an 83-seat majority, and the largest Conservative majority since the 1992-1997 John Major government, which initially won a majority of 10.

The election was dominated by Brexit. Polling puts this issue far ahead of the rest, with the economy, environment, and housing coming lower down the list than they typically would. Despite this, these remain important issues and there are a number of interesting manifesto pledges to keep an eye out for. So, what can the Tories do with their newfound power, and what changes do they have in store for planning and development?

Despite the governments’ own house building targets being set at 300,000 per year for many years now, the Conservative Party manifesto states it will progress towards its target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and will oversee the building of at least a million more homes over the five years. Interestingly, the party's 2017 manifesto pledged to deliver an average of 250,000 homes per year in 2021-22, signifying a slight tempering of expectations and possible caution towards angering rural communities with controversial planning decisions. This was also an issue which played a key role in the Conservative’s poor performance in the May 2018 local elections.

Going further on housing, the party says that it will “offer more homes to local families, enabling councils to use developers’ contributions via the planning process to discount homes in perpetuity by a third for local people who cannot otherwise afford to buy in their area”. However, the policy and manifesto does not detail how this would differ from existing requirements for new schemes to provide affordable housing.

Despite comments from the previous housing secretary James Brokenshire and current housing minister Esther McVey on improving the standards surrounding permitted development (PD), there is no mention of PD rights in the manifesto. It does however mention the desire for “every community to decide on its own design standards for new development, allowing residents a greater say on the style and design of development in their area, with local councils encouraged to build more beautiful architecture". This reflects the aims of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, which published its interim report in July. In practice, this would mean, for example, that all new streets must be lined with trees and “support” would be provided for the creation of low energy homes.

For the construction industry, the Conservative manifesto pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. It will do this by investing in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure, and invest £500 million into converting energy-intensive industries to use ‘low-carbon techniques’. However, it stops short of defining what ‘energy-intensive’ is, and it is therefore unclear what elements, if any, of the construction industry would be affected.

If you would like to know more about how the results of this election could affect your planning and development goals, please get in touch on 020 7357 8000.

George Naylor, Communications Adviser