Housing Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test is published annually and triggers the need for councils to produce a Housing Delivery Test Action Plan. This page contains our advice, guidance and resources on how to produce one.


The Housing Delivery Test that was published on 14th January 2022 and we have a mixture of spreadsheets, models, presentations and guidance related to HDT - we keep most of the materials in a special 'forum' on the PAS knowledge hub. Feel free to ask questions there. 

This is the fourth year we have been helping councils respond to the Housing Delivery Test (HDT), and we are a bit older and wiser. We have used that wisdom to update our guidance on preparing an Action Plan with the aim of making them an effective tool for councils.

In this presentation you can see the distillation of what we have learned from reading Action Plans over the last few years. The slides sit alongside the guidance and contain some very practical and helpful advice that will save you time and effort.

Presentations

 

 
The presumption in favour of sustainable development - how to keep on planning
The ultimate consequence of the Housing Delivery Test is having the presumption in favour of sustainable development or the 'titled balance' applied. This can necessitate behaviour change for making planning decisions both in plan making and development management or planning committee. We held an event on how to keep making good decisions and effective planning while dealing with the presumption being applied.
 

You can also watch the video here.
 
The six months that councils have to respond to the HDT and produce and action plan coincides with lock-down and enormous uncertainty about delivery more generally. You can read more about how the pandemic has impacted delivery here.
 
You can expect more from us on this topic in 2022, but what is certain is that while thinking about it might be more difficult than ever delivery is only going to become more important. We currently have an officer network focussed on delivery issues so if this sparks your interest then drop our project lead an email at [email protected].