The Strategic Planning Committee was scheduled to meet to discuss planning and building control updates, and to review monitoring reports on the council's performance against its own targets. The committee was also scheduled to discuss the Haringey Infrastructure Funding Statement.

Planning and Building Control Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the work of the Planning and Building Control services for the period January to March 2025.

The report pack included details of several national planning reforms that were scheduled to be discussed:

• Green Belt Reviews: In December 2024, the government announced funding to support green belt reviews as part of strategic/local plan-making. Haringey was part of a consortium of London boroughs led by the Greater London Authority (GLA) in submitting an Expression of Interest for the funding. In February 2025, the government awarded £770,000 to the GLA consortium, including Haringey, for a strategic Green Belt Review to support the emerging new London Plan and Local Plans. Land Use Consultants (LUC) were appointed as lead consultant for the Green Belt Review, supported by WeMadeThat and Douglas Edwards KC.
• Statutory Consultees: In February 2025, the Prime Minister announced an extra £1 million funding for statutory consultees on planning applications, specifically: National Highways, Natural England and the Environment Agency. In March 2025, the government announced plans for a consultation to take place regarding streamlining the statutory consultee process for planning applications. The proposals include potentially removing the statutory consultee roles of Sport England, the Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust.
• Funding for Local Plans: In February 2025, the government announced funding to support Local Plans at their first statutory stage ('Regulation 18' stage). Haringey submitted an Expression of Interest for the maximum amount of funding at £100,000. In March, the government awarded £227,962.50 to Haringey to support its Local Plan. This funding has been earmarked to employ an additional experienced officer within the Planning Policy Team and fund additional evidence base work around maximising delivery of new homes and employment floorspace including looking in detail at opportunities for employment intensification and co-location of homes and employment uses on employment land
• Planning & Infrastructure Bill: In March 2025, the government introduced the Planning & Infrastructure Bill into Parliament. The key planning provisions that the Bill will introduce primary legislation for include: the power for Local Planning Authorities to set their own planning application fees; requiring members to hold a valid certificate of completion of training for their exercise of planning functions; a national scheme of delegation to determine/inform what planning decisions should be made by a relevant planning committee; allowing regulations to prescribe the size and composition of a planning committee; requiring strategic plans, known as Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs), to be prepared for strategic authorities outside of London. London will continue to produce its SDS, the London Plan.
• Speeding up 'build out' rates: In May 2025, the government published a Working Paper and Technical Consultation on Speeding Up Build Out. To address slow build out of developments with planning permission and to provide stronger incentives and local authority tools to respond to this the key proposals include: increasing the role of strategic master-planning and encouraging greater tenure diversity on large sites; supporting the growth of SME developers building small sites by tacking the key barriers they face; requiring a range of transparency and accountability measures for developers including submitting a 'Build-Out Statement' with planning applications and supplying a commencement notice and annual progress reports on housing delivery; giving local planning authorities the powers to: 1) revoke planning permissions where they are not completed within a set timeframe (use it or lose it ) and 2) refuse planning applications from developers (or connected parties) who previously failed to build out land at a reasonable rate thereby targeting speculative developers who repeatedly apply without intent to build. As a last resort to address significant delays in housing delivery, allowing local planning authorities to charge a developer/landowner per delayed home where delays cannot be justified
• Reform of Planning Committees: In May 2025, the government published a Technical Consultation on the Reform of Planning Committees. This consultation seeks views on proposals around the delegation of planning functions, the size and composition of planning committees and mandatory training for members of planning committees.
• Site Thresholds: In May 2025, the government published a Working Paper on Reforming Site Thresholds. This sets out that the planning process has become disproportionate for SME housebuilders in bringing forward sites for development and seeks views on reforming site size thresholds in the planning system to better support housing delivery on small and medium-sized sites
• Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG): In May 2025, the government published a consultation on Improving the Implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain for Minor, Medium and Brownfield Development. This sets out that the consensus is that BNG is working well as a whole, but there is emerging evidence that some smaller developments and specific types of development are finding the operation of BNG is not as effective as could be.

The report pack also included performance data for Development Management & Enforcement:

• Applications received during April to March 2024/25: 2,888
• Applications received during same period 2023/24: 2,750
• Number of valid cases on-hand end of March 2025: 800
• Number of valid cases on-hand end of March 2024: 693
• Appeals decided during April to March 2024/25: 64
• Appeals decided during same period 2023/24: 56
• Appeals dismissed (won) during April to March 24/25: 46 (72%)
• Appeals dismissed (won) during same period 2023/24: 32 (57%)

• Cumulative performance (applications in time) 2024/25

  • Majors: 100%
  • Minors: 91%
  • Others: 94%
  • PS1 Only: 95%
  • Decisions excluded from statutory figures: 71%

The report pack stated that the government has three measures of application performance which the council must remain within thresholds for. If the council breaches these thresholds it may be designated as a poorly performing planning authority and developers will then have the option of applying directly to the Planning Inspectorate for planning permission.

The report pack also included information on Planning Advice Services, Planning Decisions, Planning Enforcement, Member Training & Site Visits, Spatial Planning and Building Control.

Haringey Authority Monitoring Report 2020-2024

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview and brief summary of the Haringey Authority Monitoring Report 2020-2024, which was published in April 2025.

The Council is required to prepare an annual report providing information on the implementation of the Local Development Scheme and the extent to which the policies set out in the adopted Local Plan documents are being achieved. This document is known as the Authority Monitoring Report (AMR).

The AMR 2020-2024 addresses key plan and policy performance outcomes across a range of policy topic areas, including housing, employment, environmental sustainability and infrastructure funding.

• Overall housing delivery: Over the period 2020-2024, housing delivery in the borough was generally strong with conventional completions (net) of 1,244 in 20/21, 1,103 in 21/22, 656 in 22/23, and 1,168 in 23/24.
• Housing Delivery Test: The Council's Housing Delivery Test performance has improved significantly over the period 2018 to 2023. As of 2023, delivery in Haringey was 99% of the required target and as such the Council is not currently subject to any consequences due to its housing delivery performance.
• Affordable homes: Over the four year period, 993 (gross) affordable homes were delivered in the borough.
• Housing land supply: As at 31 March 2024 the Council had an evidenced housing land supply of 5.18 years.
• Employment floorspace: Over the four year period, there was a small loss of employment floorspace in the borough. Since 2011, there has been a loss of over 100,000 sqm of employment floorspace as a result of planning decisions.
• Town centres: Haringey's town centre vacancy rates have decreased in recent years. When surveys were carried out in 2013, the overall local vacancy rate was 7%, in 2020 it was 6.7%, and is now down to 4.3% which is much lower than national (14%) and London (9%) averages
• Carbon emissions: The Annual Carbon Report 2022 concluded that the borough had already delivered a 43% reduction in carbon emissions since 2005 exceeding the Local Plan target of 40%
• Sustainable travel: Transport for London's Travel in London Annual Overview 2024 estimates that 76% of trips originating in Haringey were carried out by methods other than the car over the two year period 2022/23-2023-24. This is above the London average of 67.2% and the Great Britain average of 41%.
• Infrastructure funding and delivery: Over the period 2020-2024, the Council received over £16m in Community Infrastructure Levy and £12m in Section 106 funds.

Haringey Infrastructure Funding Statement 2023/24

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview and brief summary of the Haringey Infrastructure Funding Statement 2023/24, which was published in May 2025.

An Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) is an annual report that local authorities are required to publish. It provides a summary of all financial and non-financial developer contributions, primarily from Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), secured, received, and spent for infrastructure projects.

• Community Infrastructure Levy: Up to 31 March 2024 the Council had collected £35.5m of CIL. Within the 2023/24 financial year a total of £3.2m was received. As at 31 March 2024 the Council had allocated £28.4m of CIL and had spent £8.9m of allocated CIL.
• Section 106: Up to 31 March 2024 the Council held £12.1m of unspent S106 contributions. Within the 2023/24 financial year a total of £5m S106 was received. As at 31 March 2024 the Council had allocated over half of the contributions held. Within the 2023/24 financial year a total of £6.4m S106 was spent. Key areas of spend included £4.3m towards a council housing scheme on the former Ashley Road Depot site in Tottenham Hale which will deliver 272 new council homes and £627k towards open space improvements in the borough including £276k towards the transformation of The Paddock in Tottenham Hale from an underused and overgrown space into a welcoming local nature reserve.