What do the Government planning proposals entail?
An eight-week Government consultation on changes to current planning policies and regulations comes to a close today.
Those changes include altering the way housing figures are calculated – replacing the current local housing need with local housing requirements, essentially adding 300,000 homes per year to the nationwide figures.
The Government also proposes to temporarily lift the small sites threshold, below which developers do not need to contribute to affordable housing, to up to 40 or 50 units. This would support small and mediumsized builders as the economy recovers from the impact of Covid-19, it said.
The changes also include extending the current Permission in Principle to major development, which will give landowners and developers a fast route to secure the principle of development for housing on sites without having to work up detailed plans first.
The Government claims the measures will improve the effectiveness of the current planning system. To read moreabouttheproposals, visit www. gov.uk/government/ consultations/changes-to-thecurrent-planning-system
To have your say on the proposals before 11.45pm tonight, visit www. smartsurvey.co.uk/s/mhclgChanges- t o- t he- currentplanning-system/
The Government has also published its ‘planning for the future’ White Paper – which proposes a new planning system.
The White Paper divides land into three categories – growth, renewal and protected. In growth areas, outline permission would be automatically given for developments specified in a council’s local plan; renewal areaswouldbeseenassuitable
for some development; and protected areas would see development restricted.
Councils would also be able to set aside land in ‘growth’ areas for self-built and custom-built homes.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The current planning system is complicated, favours larger developers and often means that much needed new homes are delayed.
“We’re proposing a new system which is easier for the public to access, transforms the way communities are shaped and builds the homes this country needs.
“The changes will mean more good quality, attractive and affordable homes can be built faster – and more young families can have the key to their own home.”
According to the spokesman, the changes mean that homes will be built quicker by ensuring local housing plans are developed and agreed in 30 months – down from the current seven years it often takes.
It will require every area to have a local plan in place – while currently only 50 per cent of local areas has an upto-date plan.
The planning system will be made more accessible, through the use of online maps and data, while the process would be ‘overhauled and replaced with a clearer, rules based system’.
Meanwhile the proposals would also change the way that developers contribute to the cost of affordable housing and other new infrastructure such as schools, roads and GP surgeries. A new national levy would replace the existing Section 106 agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy, which the Government said would be ‘simpler’ and would ‘provide more certainty about the number of affordable homes being built’.
The White Paper also proposes that all new streets should be tree-lined and that all new homes should be ‘zero carbon ready’, with no new homes delivered under the new system needed to be retrofitted.
A consultation on the proposals ends on October 29. To find out more, visit www. gov.uk/government/ consultations/planning-forthe-future. To have your say on the proposals, visit www. smartsurvey.co.uk/s/mhclgPlanning-for-the-future/
What do you think of the proposals? Get in touch at news@chiobserver.co.uk