Housing developments within a 15-minute walk of train and tram stations will be given the green light by default from planners, under plans unveiled by housing secretary Steve Reed.<\/p>\n
Ministers will be granted stronger powers to intervene if local councils look to turn down large housing developments of over 150 homes, suggesting the government is looking to tackle NIMBYism.<\/p>\n
Councils in England will have to tell the government when they want to turn down housing developments over a certain size, with the housing secretary having the final say.<\/p>\n
Reed said: \u201cWe\u2019re making it easier to build well-connected and high-quality homes, using stronger powers to speed things up if councils drag their feet, and proposing to streamline the consultation process to cut back delays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about action: spades in the ground, breathing new life into communities, and families finally getting the homes they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rules will extend to land within the Green Belt.<\/p>\n
The government indicated that it wouldn\u2019t look kindly on planning committees turning down applications against the advice of planning officers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s claimed the reforms will drive down the number of applications considered by some statutory consultees by as much as 40%<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is quoted as saying the package will unleash \u201cthe biggest era of housebuilding in this country\u2019s history\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the NFB, said: \u201cBuilding around transport, encouraging density, tackling planning politics, and supporting planners \u2013 many of us in the industry are left speechless at the ambition and conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a considerable opportunity to enable organic placemaking and stimulate housing supply, particularly in relation to density. We will be knocking on Mr Reed\u2019s door waving our \u2018Community Density\u2019 report, which identifies how good design can make tall, dense buildings that are both acceptable to local people and seen as the default for great placemaking and more housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the National Federation of Builders (NFB), said: \u201cBuilding around existing transport infrastructure is the organic placemaking the nation has been crying out for. It will provide planning certainty \u2013 helping projects become viable and speeding up delivery of homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fergus Charlton, planning partner with national law firm Michelmores, said: \u201cExpanding the Minister\u2019s ability to call-in applications (in this case \u2018minded to refuse\u2019 applications for more than 150 units) is likely to undermine local democracy and decision making, and will not necessarily speed up the planning process when Ministerial delays will be a compounding factor in the applicant\u2019s appeal strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Reed\u2019s aspiration of streamlining the planning process and cutting back delays would have been better served by placing the soon to emerge national development management policies on a statutory basis, giving them real effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Thomas, partner in planning at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: \u201cDevelopers will welcome any move to unlock housebuilding, but any intervention from central government must ensure it doesn\u2019t merely move decision-making bottlenecks between public authorities or risk undermining an already fragile public confidence in development.<\/p>\n
\u201cBypassing local authorities to call in applications for more than 150 homes to the Secretary of State will still require the involvement of the Planning Inspectorate, which may face a significant influx of applications it hasn\u2019t dealt with until now.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving this administrative layer from local to central government therefore raises questions about whether sufficient capacity exists within the civil service \u2013 and whether a better solution would be to resource local authority planning departments more effectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that decisions aren\u2019t rushed and all the necessary considerations are still considered to ensure that development is well planned. Forcing through large-scale housing projects too rapidly could increase tensions between communities and government, so the government\u2019s housebuilding ambitions must be matched by a drive to upgrade critical infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and transport systems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Housing developments within a 15-minute walk of train and tram stations will be given the green light by default from planners, under plans unveiled by housing secretary Steve Reed. Ministers will be granted stronger powers to intervene if local councils look to turn down large housing developments of over 150 homes, suggesting the government is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-second-home"],"yoast_head":"\n