Work Package Five: Policy contexts and co-producing interventions
Research questions:
What policy levers can policy makers at different scales use to ensure that new developments support residents’ health, and how has the introduction of PDs for residential conversion impacted the effectiveness of these levers?
How are policy makers adjusting the way that they regulate the quality of new homes following the expansion of PDs?
Given the expansion of PD, what are the most effective policy levers policy makers can use to ensure that new developments support residents’ health?
Approach
Evidence suggests that the expansion of PD has had a significant negative impact on the planning policy ‘levers’ local government actors have available to them to ensure that new homes and places support residents’ health and wellbeing. WP5 will assess the extent of these impacts on local actors’ regulatory powers, situate them within their wider policy context, and develop guidance for English national and local government on how to ensure the quality of new developments in response.
Literature and policy review
We will use desk-based literature and policy reviews to establish current national and local policy contexts. Our approach to reviewing this literature will be guided by formal policy relevance. For example, literature relevant to establishing the current national policy context will include:
• The National Planning Policy Framework;
• National Planning Practice Guidance (including the National Model Design Code);
• Recent written Ministerial Statements, Chief Planning Officer letters, and other directions made by the DLUHC;
• The regulations underpinning PD and the ‘prior approval’ route to development consent; and
• Legal decisions, guidance, and briefings on interpreting policy and regulation relating to PD (important given the highly subjective nature of the English planning system)
• We will review similar literature concerning the national housing system (building regulation, various related licencing regimes, etc) and public health (for example, Health and Safety System), alongside relevant analysis from expert organisations and the professional and mainstream press. This will inform our understanding of how the policy and guidance described above shapes practice, which will be valuable for interpreting data collected through roundtables and interviews (see below).
• The local planning/housing policy context can vary significantly between different authorities and localities. Two further bodies of literature will be important for establishing this context:
• Local (and city-regional or county-level where this is relevant) planning, housing, public health policy relevant to the ‘hotspots’ for PD identified through WP1; and
• Local reporting/analysis on planning, housing and public health policy on housing quality across different English local authorities. This may be in the local press, or from expert organisations.
Methods
We will use roundtables and semi-structured interviews with policy makers in local and national government in England, to:
Identify the specific impacts of PD on the policy levers local policy makers have available to them to influence the quality of new homes in practice
Identify how PD has changed the use of policy levers for ensuring the quality of new developments in practice
Identify emerging local best practice in relation to the above
We will recruit for six regional roundtables by contacting every planning authority in England via the TCPA’s database, inviting responses from planning officers who self-report as working in areas with large numbers of PD homes. Invites will be prioritised via cross-reference to the outcomes of WP1, which will identify particular ‘hotspots’ for poor quality PD homes. Each roundtable will involve 6-12 participants, ideally in person. Geographically, roundtables will cover the Royal Town Planning Institute’s nine English regions. Online follow-up interviews for fine-grained analysis of practical challenges and responses will be held with participants identified during the roundtables as having particularly valuable insights. Using the TCPA’s institutional networks we will approach national-level decision makers (likely in the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities) for interview about the rationale behind reforms and their awareness of issues raised by local decision makers.