Housing planning set to accelerate

As part of the government’s Plan for Change, in which mission objectives include getting Britain building and delivering 1.5 million new homes, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has set out new plans to speed up the planning process by giving greater decision-making powers for planners to speed up the approval process.

This will help to stop delays and uncertainty in the construction of new buildings by allowing applications that comply with local development plans to bypass planning committees, streamlining the process of getting Britain building. A national scheme of delegation would be introduced by setting up committees for strategic development and mandatory training for planning committee members, alongside local planning officers having greater planning powers to implement agreed policies.

These changes will help speed up building processes by stopping delays and wasting resources, giving greater certainty to housebuilders and kickstarting economic growth across the country.

Alongside these proposed reforms, the government is set to confirm radical changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), following a consultation launched in July.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said: “Building more homes and infrastructure across the country means unblocking the clogged-up planing system that serves as a chokehold on growth. The government will deliver a sweeping overhaul of the creaking local planning committee system.

“Streamlining the approvals process by modernising local planning committees means tackling the chronic uncertainty and damaging delays that acts as a drag anchor on building the homes people desperately need.

“Grasping the nettle of planning committee reform and fast-tracking decision-making is a vital part of our Plan for Change. Building 1.5 million homes over five years means tackling the housing crisis we inherited head-on with bold action.

“Through our Planning and Infrastructure Bill, alongside new National Planning Policy Framework and mandatory housing targets, we are taking decisive steps to accelerate building, get spades in the ground and deliver the change communities need.”

These proposed reforms to planning committees are part of a wider scheme the government has proposed to spend more on housing, as announced in the Budget. Housing spending is set to rise to £5 billion next year, including £500 million in new investment for the Affordable Homes Programme, set to deliver tens of thousands of new affordable and social homes nationwide.

Measures the government have already implemented to get Britain building again include: announcing an overhaul of the planning system by reforming the National Planning Policy Framework, launching a New Homes Accelerator to finally finish the planning or building of stagnant projects, as well as announcing plans for ‘brownfield passports’, which will ensure that where proposals meet design and quality standards, they will be granted planning permission.