Accelerating Housing Delivery: Planning and Housing Practice Note (December 2024)
February 2025
In December 2024, the Greater London Authority (GLA) issued the Accelerating Housing Delivery: Planning and Housing Practice Note, which is aimed at accelerating housing delivery in London, through short term measures to increase affordable housing provision and support wider housing delivery.
The Practice Note is aimed at setting out the Mayors strategy to increase housing delivery, particularly affordable housing, in response to current market conditions. The note places a particular emphasis on the importance of affordable housing delivery as a means to meeting the needs of Londoners and diversifying supply.
The document aims to address the challenges in housing delivery, including market conditions, interest rates, and build cost inflation, by implementing strategic interventions and funding to maintain and increase affordable housing delivery in London.
The document reinforces the London Mayor’s commitment to meeting the capital’s pressing housing needs and reflects the ongoing housing crisis, with practical measures offered to bridge the gap between housing demand and supply.
We have summarised the key points within the Practice Note below, which is now a material consideration for the purposes of determining planning applications.
Prioritising Affordable Housing Delivery and Incentivising the Fast Track Route
London Plan Policy H5 will still set the foundations for the acceleration of affordable housing through the Fast Track Route (FTR). Where boroughs have adopted site-specific requirements that are higher than the threshold approach set out in the London Plan on private land these will need to be justified by robust viability evidence for doing so. The Mayors preferred threshold for schemes to be considered under the FTR remains at 35% on private land and 50% on public land.
Social Rent Housing
In 2024 the Accelerated Funding Route (AFR) was introduced to provide greater certainty on the availability of funding for affordable homes. This is with a view to unlocking the delivery of more social rented housing through the conversion of existing and planned affordable homes to more affordable tenures.
The Practice Note, indicates that owing to the need to significantly increase social rented housing that consideration will be given to allowing schemes that provide either solely social rent or a majority of social rent, which fall below the adopted threshold levels without the need for viability assessments. In order to qualify, the provision of social rent housing would need to be equivalent to the relevant affordable housing threshold level at the local plan tenure split.
Intermediate Housing
The Mayor is promoting intermediate rent housing for qualifying middle income earners (up to £67,000) as an additional tenure to intermediate sale products. The preferred intermediate rent tenure will be Discount Market Rent (DMR) set at London Living Rent (LLR) benchmarks, published annually by the GLA.
Although nothing has been confirmed, the Mayor may allow Discount Market Rent (DMR) accommodation costs to exceed the maximum affordability threshold over time, provided initial costs adhere to GLA benchmarks and homes remain affordable. This flexibility, especially at the S106 stage, could encourage broader delivery of intermediate rent housing while accommodating long-term cost adjustments.
Supported Housing
The GLA will now also consider accepting the provision of supported housing and accommodation for homeless households, including temporary accommodation as a like for like alternative to intermediate housing when assessing applications against the relevant threshold level of affordable housing. This approach can be applied for current and new applications where the tenure mix does not optimally meet housing need, and could be used to replace shared ownership housing where there is limited demand.
Meanwhile Housing
The GLA are strongly supportive of identifying opportunities on sites suitable for residential occupation that can be used for meanwhile housing. Where this is provided on sites for a minimum of 5 years the GLA will consider enabling the applicant to retain a higher proportion of surplus profit in late stage reviews or for phased schemes, excluding this phase mid-term to late stage reviews.
Review Mechanisms
The application of early, mid and late stage reviews will continue where schemes fail to meet the FTR criteria. As an incentive to encourage the delivery of small to medium scale developments, the GLA will consider allowing applicant to retain 70 per cent of any surplus profit in late stage reviews on applications granted after the publication of the Practice Note. In order to qualify for this the application must provide at least 25 per cent on site affordable housing at the relevant tenure split on private land and 35% on public land. This will also be applied to phases of larger developments that complete within three years of this practice note.
Enhanced Support for Local Councils and Registered Providers (RPs)
The GLA note addresses the aim to scale up assistance for councils and RPs in order to accelerate the pipeline of affordable housing projects and to expand social housing stock in order to boost intermediate housing options.
The GLA acknowledges the economic pressures faced by developers and RPs. By providing targeted support and fostering collaboration, these issues can help encourage the delivery of viable, affordable schemes.
Encouraging Institutional Investment
Steps are being taken to support the delivery of affordable housing, such as the AFR, which will provide more certainty on the availability of grant funding. Where schemes are proposing 40 per cent or more affordable housing (by hab room) grant funding can be allocated above the 20 per cent threshold (which should be delivered without grant).
In addition there will be grant funding opportunities for schemes which are struggling to offload their affordable housing offer to an RP, such as shared ownership initiatives. This offer is aimed at switching shared ownership housing in consented schemes, where they are not attractive to the council or RP’s in addition to providing funding to convert homes to more affordable tenures.
The GLA’s new guidance highlights the viability and challenges faced in the current development and housing sector, with new initiatives brought forward to help ease the pressure for developers and encourage schemes towards affordable housing delivery options.
By emphasising affordable housing, streamlining the planning processes, and highlighting the importance of collaboration between the planning and development sector, the proposal provides a strategic framework to meet the housing needs in the capital. Whether these are enough to significantly accelerate housing growth and promote quicker deliverables remains in question. We’d love to know your thoughts on the new initiatives proposed by the GLA and how this affects your business going forward.