Out-Law News

Government provides £17m boost to neighbourhood planning


The Government will make £17 million of funding available over two years to help communities get started with making neighbourhood plans, Planning Minister Nick Boles has announced.

Under the funding scheme, from January local authorities will be able to claim grants of up to £50,000 for up to a maximum of 10 area designations in this financial year. From April 2013, local authorities can claim up to £100,000 for up to 20 designations in the financial year 2013 to 2014. Authorities will then receive a further £25,000 for every neighbourhood plan that gets through a successful examination.

The money is paid in recognition of the duties that local authorities have in relation to neighbourhood planning, including providing advice and assistance, holding an examination and making arrangements for a referendum.

“Communities across the country are showing real enthusiasm for neighbourhood planning and taking up the powers we gave them," said Boles. "This is in stark contrast to the top down only decisions we saw before."

“The new financial support we are making available today to councils will enable them to open up neighbourhood planning so that even more communities can turn paper plans into the realities of prospering neighborhoods that are growing and developing in the ways they want to see,” he said.

The power for communities to work up plans for neighbourhood areas was introduced by the Government in the Localism Act last year. More than 300 communities so far have taken advantage of the powers to begin work on plans.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.