The new Housing and Planning Bill has been published, which brings new obligations for local plans and automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites.
DCLG writes
Councils must produce local plans for new homes in their area by 2017 – or the government will ensure, in consultation with local people, those plans are produced for them.
- Landmark Housing and Planning Bill will help deliver government ambition of one million homes by 2020
- Councils must produce local plans for new homes by 2017 – or government will ensure plans are produced for them
- Government confirms measures to deliver 200,000 Starter Homes, offer 1.3 million tenants the Right to Buy and cut red tape to boost home building
While 82% of councils have published local plans – which should set out how many homes they plan to deliver over a set period – only 65% have fully adopted them, and there are still almost 20% of councils that do not have an up to date plan at all.
Today, the Prime Minister is making crystal clear that he expects all councils to create and deliver local plans – making sure they take action to help reach the government’s ambition of delivering 1 million homes by 2020. The Prime Minister unveiled the proposals ahead of the publication of the Housing Bill which will help deliver 1 million homes by 2020 – a key part of the government’s pledge to deliver security, stability and opportunity to the British people. And it comes just days after the Prime Minister and housing associations reached an historic agreement to extend the Right to Buy to 1.3 million additional tenants from as early as next year – a clear signal of the government’s plans to give all hardworking people the opportunity to unlock the door to home ownership.
The bill spells out a series of further proposals to boost homebuilding and home ownership, including:
- new affordable Starter Homes – a new legal duty will be placed on councils to guarantee the delivery of Starter Homes on all reasonably sized new development sites, and to promote the scheme to first-time buyers in their area. The government is also announcing today that local authorities will be able to bid for a share of a £10 million Starter Homes fund – part of a £36 million package to accelerate the delivery of starter homes – by helping councils prepare brownfield sites that would otherwise not be built for starter homes.
- automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites – to build as many homes as possible while protecting the green belt
- planning reforms to support small builders – placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home
- selling off high value vacant assets – which will be reinvested in building new affordable homes
In other boosts for house building today, the PM is also announcing that a temporary rule introduced in May 2013 allowing people to convert disused offices into homes without applying for planning permission will be made a permanent change – after almost 4,000 conversions were given the go ahead between April 2014 to June this year.
And, thanks to a new website launching on Monday morning, prospective homeowners will now be able to go online to www.ownyourhome.gov.uk to see what government schemes are available to open doors for them.
View the local planning press release
View the ‘generation buy’ press release
