The Town and Country Planning (Residential Development on Greenfield Land) (England) Direction 2000 was introduced as a transitional measure on the introduction of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: ‘Housing’ in March 2000.
Planning Policy Statement 3: ‘Housing’ (PPS3) published in November 2006 introduced a new and less restrictive approach to the supply of land for housing, in order to help us achieve the step change in delivery we need to provide an increase in the supply of new homes. Local authorities are required to have a rolling five-year supply of land for housing, giving priority to the release of brownfield land. The national target is that 60 per cent. of housing development should be on brownfield land.
PPS 3 gives local authorities the responsibility for deciding the most suitable location for housing, taking account of their local circumstances and the availability of deliverable brownfield sites. It is no longer appropriate therefore to require them to refer larger greenfield sites to the Secretary of State as the Greenfield Land Direction did, and to keep this requirement in place would mean that it takes longer to make decisions on planning applications which could delay the delivery of necessary new housing on suitable sites.