Out-Law News 2 min. read
24 Mar 2016, 2:43 pm
The Budget also included pledges to provide further funding for the preparation of brownfield land for housing development, to release more public land for redevelopment and to provide incentives for local authorities to bring forward new settlements of 1,500 homes or more based on garden city principles.
The government said the new statutory time limits for decisions by the communities secretary were intended "to prevent time-delays on decisions on infrastructure, housing and regeneration projects". Other announcements intended to streamline the planning process included a pledge to consult on further reforms to the compulsory purchase and to "move to a more zonal and 'red line' planning system".
As in previous Budgets and Autumn Statements, the 2016 Budget announced measures to bring forward brownfield land for development. The government said it would consult with city regions on allowing taller buildings on brownfield land to "reduce the need to 'build out'". It also announced the publication of a Starter Homes Land Fund prospectus (13-page / 422 KB PDF), inviting councils to bid for a share of £1.2 billion for the remediation of brownfield land to deliver starter homes.
The government said it would collaborate with councils "to release land with capacity for at least 160,000 homes" and to regenerate housing estates. It said the Homes and Communities Agency would work with councils and Network Rail to release land around railway stations for regeneration, including for housing development.
The Budget announced that the government would support areas intending to establish "garden villages": by legislating to "speed up and simplify the process for delivery of new settlements; providing "capacity support" to councils; and introducing "planning incentives". On the same day that the budget was delivered, the Department for Communities and Local Government published a prospectus (18-page / 521 KB PDF) inviting proposals for the delivery of new "garden villages" of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes or "garden towns" of more than 10,000 homes.
Other announcements in the Budget included new devolution agreements for Greater Lincolnshire, East Anglia and the West of England and the extension of the private rented sector housing guarantee scheme until December 2017.
Planning expert Ben Mansell of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "In line with the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime, ministerial decisions on recovered planning appeals and called-in planning applications will have to be made within three months once an inspector’s report is received. Currently, just under half of recovered planning appeals and called-in planning applications take over three months to be decided. Whilst this is welcome news and will speed up the planning process, the communities secretary must ensure that the quality of decision making is not affected. Recovered planning appeals and called-in planning applications typically relate to the most complex and challenging developments."
"There are a wide range of other measures brought forward in the Budget that have the potential to stimulate greater house building," said Mansell. "However, many of the measures have either been announced beforehand or update previous policy. There are no major new housing initiatives announced. To solve the housing issue in the UK, it is acknowledged up to 250,000 new homes need to be built every year. Whether the measures within the Budget will provide the impetus to build this number of homes remains to be seen."