Urban agenda will be driven by local plans based on urban capacity assessments using patterns for density.
The Government's overhaul of design, density and location of new homes is being widely tipped to be even more far-reaching than trumpeted.

Most changes will be formally published in March in the new planning policy guidance note 3 on housing. The finalised PPG3 is understood to have been rushed through the regulation review stage and onto the Cabinet Office because “it is part of a package that takes in matters beyond the policy remit of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions”, according to a source.

The need for the publication to be ready for release close to the Budget signals the probability it will be linked to Budget measures for either encouraging regeneration or discourage building on undeveloped land, or both. DETR ministers have been taking the urban regeneration argument to the electorate with two widely publicised displays of sabre-rattling, first by housing and planning minister Nick Raynsford with briefings off a speech given at the New Homes Marketing Board’s awards in January and then by deputy prime minister John Prescott days later at the Fabian Society.

The draft PPG3 released last spring included a proposal to replace the current planning authority method for drawing up local plans, land availability studies, with the urban capacity assessment. In tandem with the “sequential test” for greenfield land release, the pair will oblige local authorities to look much harder at the housing potential of redevelopment.

Developers‘ criticisms of the draft for being unworkably short on detail had been echoed by the House of Commons’ environment select committee. However, Raynsford’s speech to the NHMB awards made a point of endorsing a publication released on the same day from the London Planning Advisory Committee called Sustainable Residential Quality that includes working models by planning consultancy Llewelyn-Davies for use as urban capacity assessment tools. These 24 “tile sheet” studies show how to maximise land usage on a range of urban sites by using different models. Models step up from terraced housing at 52.8 units/ha, to large medium-rise apartment schemes with a communal courtyard inspired by the Edwardian mansion block as a 423 units/ha ideal for urban centres.

It also emerged that SRQ is just one of 15 such studies that will define a DETR national good practice guide on urban capacity assessment due to follow the PPG3. David Rudlin, from the not-for profit consultancy URBED and one of the guide’s authors, said: ”Capacity assessments will no doubt be tested at local plan inquiry or appeal, so the tool kit for the authorities is going to have to be pretty robust.”

Developers are concerned that urban capacity models presuming against private gardens and car parking will disappoint much of their core market. Others add that it will reduce opportunities to find windfall sites and demotivate regeneration specialists.