The government’s commitment to building 1.5m homes over the course of this Parliament and to speed up some 150 outstanding planning decisions on critical infrastructure, is encapsulated in the Planning & Infrastructure Bill (PIB) which was introduced in March and underpinned by the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in December 2024.
Several aspects of the Bill will affect farmers including the removal of hope value when land is compulsorily purchased, and the introduction of environmental delivery plans (EDPs) which will require land for mitigation.
Some background – the new National Planning Policy Framework
The NPPF sets out the government’s planning policies, which, in turn, guide local authorities’ local plans. The new framework establishes mandatory (rather than advisory) targets for housebuilding and introduces a new ‘grey belt’ category. Given that the ambitious housing targets will require extensive acreage, the NFU had originally proposed that food production should be a ‘weighted economic argument’ when considering land for development. This proposal failed to make the final cut and any reference to agricultural land and farming in the NPPF is limited to an observation that where ‘significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.’ Although agricultural land won’t be considered ‘grey belt’ the shift in emphasis will make it easier for farmland to be designated for non-agricultural development.
Hope value goes in compulsory purchase
To speed up delivery of local development, the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, in its current iteration, will allow greater delegation of certain planning applications to planning officers. In keeping with local accountability, and of particular importance to farmers, the Bill will allow local planning authorities, parish, town or community councils to remove the hope value from compensation payments where land is compulsory purchased for affordable housing, regeneration, or educational or health-related needs. At present, the removal of hope value from a compulsory purchase of land can only be approved by the Secretary of State.
Although the housing minister maintained that brownfield and ‘grey belt’ land would be targeted first, agricultural land adjacent to existing communities will almost certainly come into the equation, particularly if not enough land comes forward voluntarily. This may result in farmers having to sell at agricultural value rather than market value, thus going against the principle of equivalence i.e., that compulsory purchase should not leave a landowner in a worse position.
Private capital markets v. Environmental Delivery Plans
The Planning & Infrastructure Bill will allow Natural England (NE) to manage a new Nature Restoration Fund which will be funded by a levy on developers. This fund will be used to support Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) drawn up by NE, which are designed to deliver large scale mitigation projects such as addressing nutrient neutrality and the specific environmental impact a particular development will have. Payment of the levy into the Fund will discharge a developer’s obligation, with the onus on NE to deliver the mitigation. The focus is on delivering environmental mitigation at scale, suggesting that considerable amounts of farmland may be required to achieve results. The government proposes that work on EDPs will start now so that they can be launched as soon as the Bill is enacted which could be another two years away.
What is not clear is how existing mitigation projects, funded by credits purchased by developers on the private market, and delivered by landowner and farmer-led groups, will continue to operate once the EDPs are up and running. It also appears that if an EDP is not delivering the promised benefits, it can be scrapped, unlike private mitigation projects which are contractually determined over a set period with an agreed payback period. There is also a question mark over the future of BNG as there is no mention of it in the Bill.
‘Not targeting agricultural land’
The Minister for Housing has reiterated the need to ‘unlock land in the right places…. We are not setting out to target agricultural land and will ensure prime agricultural land and food security is protected.’ Balancing competing interests is the motivation behind the proposed Land Use Framework so it will be interesting to see if cross-departmental decision-making over land use is fair, or if the need to build trumps all other considerations. Please contact our planning team if you have questions on how the Planning & Infrastructure Bill may affect your farming operation.
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