Planning shake-up to give residents a say on new-builds

RESIDENTS will be able to vote street-by-street on future housing and decide how to spend levies on development.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill aims to take power out of the hands of developers and councils and give it to homeowners.

It will mean people will be able to decide if they want more development on brownfield sites in their areas. The layout of new developments and the facades of buildings would also be decided by locals.

They will also be able to determine how levies on developers are spent so they can be directed towards building new homes or schools.

Under the Street Votes scheme, if a two-thirds ‘super-majority’ of residents support a plan, it could go ahead. Any development would have to be in keeping with the design styles favoured locally and strict limits will prevent development from impacting neighbouring streets.

Ministers hope the scheme could lead to a ‘Victorian Renaissance’ in development, allowing streets of semi-detached properties gradually to evolve into terraced streets. Housing Secretary Michael Gove said this could lead to ‘gentle densification’ of areas, with incentives for homeowners to vote for development.

Ministers pledged to cut bureaucracy and enhance the power of communities to protect areas from development. It comes after they were forced to pull planning laws which infuriated Tories in their traditional heartlands over fears of more development.

Ministers had proposed ‘renewal zones’ in which permission to build would be granted automatically, but it caused uproar.

New environmental impact assessments will also be introduced which will replace EU ones. The Bill will also enable every county to apply for devolution by handing more power to local leaders by 030.

New powers for local authorities to bring empty premises back into use and instigate rental auctions of vacant commercial properties in town centres were also included in the Queen’s Speech yesterday.