New measures to speed up delivery of new homes in the UK announced

New measures will speed up the delivery of new homes in the UK by cutting down unnecessary planning processes and providing more certainty about where sensible development should take place.

Housing minister Nick Boles has outlined proposals that will boost house building and support businesses keen to expand by removing delays from the planning system, stopping burdensome conditions and cutting the costly red tape often faced by applicants.

He said that the changes will also provide more certainty for communities and developers by proposing to make it a legal requirement for local authorities to have a local plan in place as this will ensure that councils engage with local people about where homes, businesses and services for their area should be located in the future.
 
The measures mean that when a council has failed to deal with details required by a condition on a planning permission on time it will be treated as approved. They will also strengthen the requirement for councils to justify conditions which require more information before work can start.

Other measures will be consulted on including how to improve plan making and making it a statutory requirement for a council to put a local plan in place, shaping where development should and shouldn’t go, and how to cut the number of applications where unnecessary statutory consultations take place while keeping the same level of environmental protections in place.

‘These proposals mark an important next step in streamlining the planning system and ensuring it is able to work efficiently to support the development of new homes, infrastructure and jobs we need,’ said Boles.

‘They will also ensure that communities are at the heart of the planning system and given the power to make the right decisions for their local area,’ he added.