Housing and the 5 year supply
15th of July, 2025
The current Government has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes during its Parliament – a commitment that the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor stated “there are no excuses not to achieve”.
Consequently, in Dec 2024, the Government updated the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to include revised Standard Methodology figures, used for calculating housing land supply.
Preston’s housing land supply increased from 269 homes pa to 590 homes pa.
Based on the new figures, Preston City Council did not have a 5 year supply of deliverable housing land and the tilted balance in favour of development was applied rather than relying on the Policies in the Local Plan.
The impact of not having a 5 year supply is detailed below.
The City Council recalculates its 5 year supply figures annually at the end of March, and in June 2025 it confirmed that the 5 year supply of 590 homes pa had been restored.
If an application has been refused at an appeal, can a new application be submitted?
Yes. If the City Council doesn't have a 5-year supply of housing land, the tilted balance is applied in favour of National Policy rather than Local Policy
What happens if the Council doesn’t have a 5-year supply?
If a Council cannot demonstrate a 5-year supply, applications are determined against paragraph 11 of the NPPF which sets out a presumption in favour of sustainable development.
In summary, it states applications should be approved without delay and a ‘tilted balance’ is applied where by Local Plan Policies are considered to be out of date.
The City Council was in this situation in 2018 – and when the ‘tilted balance’ was applied - the Council concluded that the housing applications in Whittingham should be approved.
This conclusion carries significant weight when determining any current applications submitted whilst the City Council does not have a 5-year supply.
However, of equal significance, is that before the approval notices were issued, the previous Government altered the way Housing Supply was calculated and the 5-year supply was restored.
This meant the tilted balance didn’t apply - and the applications were refused.
Currently the 5-year supply has been confirmed, so applications determined after April 2025 should be assessed against the Local Plan Policies and based on the previous refusal notice.
Any new submissions for housing should be refused.