<p>The industry should not “sit back and wait for changes” to the planning system as they “are already happening”, Joanna Averley, DLUHC’s chief planner said today, in absence of an update on the government’s long awaited planning reforms.</p> <p>Speaking at the Home Builders Federation’s online Planning Conference, Averley said that the department’s work on design quality was one key area of change within planning. The recent update to the National Planning Policy Framework to reflect the design focus was a “significant change”. </p> <p>“This [design quality] is one of the most important areas for HBF and its cohort to think about and lean into,” she stated, with the drive to create places for “people to be proud of” that meet communities’ needs and that of the net zero agenda.</p> <p>But Averley would not be drawn on when housebuilders could expect a response to DLUHC’s consultation from more than a year ago, on the intended overhaul of the planning system. Following the change to the department’s name and widening of its remit to accommodate the government’s levelling up agenda, she said it was “in that careful phase with the secretary of state looking at all the good work that’s been done. …