The government has set out a number of last-minute amendments to its Planning and Infrastructure Bill in a bid to boost the construction of new homes.
The “pro-growth package” will aim to slash planning delays and, if approved, will give ministers new powers to prevent applications being rejected by local councils while they consider using “call-in” powers to determine whether or not they should be approved. The government says that close to 900 major housing schemes have been blocked in the past year alone.
The new plans will also stop planning permissions from being timed out for approved major housing schemes facing lengthy judicial reviews, building on existing measures to cut back meritless legal challenges for major infrastructure projects from three to one, and cutting a year off the statutory pre-consultation period.
The government will also allow the Nature Restoration Fund to support the delivery of marine development, protecting marine habitats while accelerating the construction of coastal projects.
The amendments also plan to streamline Natural England’s role in the planning process by reducing duplication and allowing greater discretion to focus on applications that pose higher risks or present stronger opportunities for nature recovery, and providing standard guidance to local authorities for “straightforward cases”.
The new measures would also greenlight reservoirs faster, which the MHCLG says will unlock new opportunities for housebuilding after more than 30 years without a new reservoir in the UK.
Housing secretary, Steve Reed, said: “Britain’s potential has been shackled by governments unwilling to overhaul the stubborn planning system that has erected barriers to building at every turn. It is simply not true that nature has to lose for economic growth to succeed.”
“Sluggish planning has real-world consequences. Every new house blocked deprives a family of a home. Every infrastructure project that gets delayed blocks someone from a much-needed job. This will now end.”
“The changes we are making today will strengthen the seismic shift already underway through our landmark Bill. We will ‘Build, baby, build’ with 1.5 million new homes and communities that working people desperately want and need.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said: “The outdated planning system has been gummed up by burdensome bureaucracy and held to ransom by blockers for too long.”
“Our pro-growth planning bill shows we are serious about cutting red tape to get Britain building again, backing the builders not the blockers to speed up projects and show investors that we are a country that gets spades in the ground and our economy growing.”
Danny Pinder, director of Policy (Real Estate) at the British Property Federation, said: “The government’s planning reforms to date have been necessary but not sufficient to get Britain building. The relentless focus on unblocking new development is welcome insofar as it seeks to give industry the confidence to invest in new homes, workspaces and places, as long as the plan-led system remains the core mechanism for delivering development. However, as of today, the biggest barriers to development delivery are significant viability challenges, delays caused by bottlenecks at the Building Safety Regulator and an increasingly cautious position being adopted by investors due to the current economic climate. We need to see action on these by the Budget at the very latest.”
