| Date | 12 May 2016 |
| Location | England and Wales |
| Caused by | Sustained housing delivery shortfall and 2015 Conservative manifesto commitments |
| Resulted in | Introduction of starter homes framework, brownfield registers, permission in principle, rogue landlord database, and higher-value asset levy; several provisions later abandoned or uncommenced |
| Parties | HM Government · House of Commons · House of Lords · Local Government Association · National Housing Federation · Home Builders Federation |
| Lead figures | Greg Clark, Brandon Lewis, David Cameron |
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 was a major piece of legislation enacted on 12 May 2016 in England and Wales. The Act introduced sweeping reforms to the planning system, housing delivery framework, and local authority powers, and is widely regarded as among the most consequential housing statutes of the early twenty-first century. It received Royal Assent following an extended parliamentary passage of fourteen months, during which 312 amendments were tabled across both chambers.
By the mid-2010s, England faced a sustained shortfall in housing delivery relative to projected household formation rates. The Department for Communities and Local Government estimated in its 2014 Strategic Housing Market Assessment guidance that approximately 240,000 new homes per year were required to meet demand, against an actual delivery rate of approximately 141,000 completions in 2013–14. The [Homes England](/wiki/homes-england) framework, established under the [Housing and Regeneration Act 2008](/wiki/housing-and-regeneration-act-2008), had provided the principal vehicle for public land disposal and grant funding to registered providers, but critics — including the [Cave Review of Social Housing 2007](/wiki/cave-review-social-housing-2007) — argued that the regulatory architecture governing affordable housing had become insufficiently responsive to local need.
The Conservative government, returned with a majority at the May 2015 general election, committed in its manifesto to extending the Right to Buy to housing association tenants and to accelerating planning permissions on allocated land. These commitments formed the legislative core of what became the Housing and Planning Act 2016. The Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 13 October 2015 by Secretary of State Greg Clark and Housing Minister Brandon Lewis.
The Act comprised 212 sections and 25 schedules, organised into seven principal parts. Its primary provisions included the introduction of a statutory framework for starter homes — dwellings to be sold at a minimum 20 percent discount to first-time buyers under the age of 40 — the extension of automatic planning permission in principle for sites allocated in brownfield registers, and the introduction of new "higher value asset" levy arrangements enabling the government to require local authorities to make annual payments corresponding to the estimated sale proceeds of vacant higher-value social housing.
### Part 1: Starter Homes
Part 1 placed a duty on local planning authorities to promote the supply of starter homes and required that a proportion of starter homes be included in residential developments above a prescribed threshold. The precise proportion was left to secondary legislation, a delegation that drew sustained criticism from the Public Accounts Committee in its November 2016 report *Starter Homes* (HC 712), which noted that the relevant regulations had not been laid within the session and that no starter homes had been delivered under the statutory scheme by the time of the report's publication.
### Part 2: Brownfield Land and Permission in Principle
Part 2 introduced the brownfield land register and the concept of "permission in principle," a new consent route intended to separate the question of the suitability of a site for housing in principle from the assessment of technical detail. Local planning authorities were required to compile and maintain registers of brownfield land suitable for residential development. Permission in principle could be granted either through allocation on the register or by application, with technical details consent required before development could commence.
### Part 3: Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding
Part 3 amended the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 to strengthen the duty on local authorities to maintain registers of individuals and associations seeking self-build and custom housebuilding plots, and to grant sufficient development permissions to match registered demand within a three-year rolling period.
### Part 4: Rogue Landlords and Letting Agents
Part 4 established a database of rogue landlords and letting agents in England, accessible to local housing authorities, and introduced a scheme of banning orders — enforceable through the First-tier Tribunal — against landlords and letting agents convicted of specified offences. The banning order provisions were subsequently commenced by the Housing and Planning Act 2016 (Banning Order Offences) Regulations 2017.
### Part 5: Social Housing
Part 5 introduced the "pay to stay" scheme, under which social housing tenants earning above a specified income threshold would be required to pay a market or near-market rent. The threshold was set at £31,000 per annum outside London and £40,000 within London. The scheme was later abandoned in October 2016, following the change in Prime Minister from David Cameron to Theresa May, on the grounds that its administrative costs were disproportionate to projected receipts.
The Act received a divided reception. The Local Government Association characterised Part 6 as "an unprecedented intrusion into local democratic control of planning." The Chartered Institute of Housing published a briefing in June 2016 noting that the starter homes provisions, as drafted, would displace affordable rented housing from section 106 agreements, potentially reducing the supply of homes accessible to households in the lowest income deciles. The National Housing Federation, representing housing associations, opposed the voluntary Right to Buy agreement that had been reached with the government in advance of the Bill and which informed the higher-value asset levy mechanism, arguing that the levy's financial modelling was not independently verified.
Proponents, including the Home Builders Federation, welcomed the brownfield register and permission in principle provisions as a meaningful reduction in planning risk for smaller housebuilders. The Planning Advisory Service estimated in a December 2016 technical note that permission in principle, if fully implemented, could reduce the average time from site identification to outline consent by fourteen months.
Several of the Act's most prominent provisions were not commenced or were substantially modified within two years of Royal Assent. The starter homes regulations were never laid in the form anticipated by Part 1. The pay-to-stay provisions were abandoned before commencement. The higher-value asset levy was not operationalised. A 2018 National Audit Office report, *Housing in England: Overview* (HC 917), concluded that the Act's implementation had been "uneven" and that the Department had been unable to demonstrate delivery against any of the three flagship measures.
The permission in principle mechanism was commenced in limited form by the Town and Country Planning (Permission in Principle) Order 2017 and has since been extended. The brownfield register duty remains in force and has been cited in successive Planning Policy Guidance updates as a material consideration in plan-making. The rogue landlord database provisions were fully commenced and the register has been operational since April 2018.
The Act is frequently cited alongside the [Housing and Regeneration Act 2008](/wiki/housing-and-regeneration-act-2008) in academic analyses of the disjunction between legislative ambition and delivery outcomes in English housing policy. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 subsequently repealed or replaced several of its planning provisions.
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 was the subject of a special episode of the BBC Radio 4 series *Law in Action*, broadcast on 19 May 2016, in which barrister Stephanie Barrise described the starter homes provisions as "legislation in search of a statutory instrument." The Act was also referenced in the Channel 4 documentary series *How to Buy a Home* (2017), in which a planning consultant described permission in principle as "the planning equivalent of being told you may, in theory, eventually get a sandwich."
### Part 6: Planning in England
Part 6 included provisions for the compulsory disposal of vacant higher-value local authority housing, the introduction of a new "neighbourhood planning" fast-track, and amendments to the community infrastructure levy framework. Section 143 conferred power on the Secretary of State to direct local planning authorities that had failed to produce a local plan within a prescribed period to adopt a government-prepared plan in its place — a provision that provoked significant debate in the Lords, with 74 peers voting for a wrecking amendment on 26 January 2016 that was subsequently reversed in the Commons.
### Part 7: Miscellaneous
Part 7 contained provisions relating to the Homes and Communities Agency (subsequently renamed Homes England), the [Affordable Homes Programme](/wiki/affordable-homes-programme), compulsory purchase reform, and the technical revision of the land charges register under the [Land Charges Act 1972](/wiki/land-charges-act-1972).