A rural planning review in England is aiming to introduce ‘rural proofing’, including addressing home building needs.
DEFRA writes:
A new Rural Planning Review will look to reduce regulatory burdens in support of new homes, jobs and innovation. Rural entrepreneurs and housebuilders in England will have the opportunity to provide ideas on how the planning system can better support rural life, making it simpler for them to expand their businesses and to build much needed new homes.
The move comes as the government launches a planning review to reduce regulatory burdens in support of new homes, jobs and innovation. It will also review the rules for converting agricultural buildings to residential use, building on the success of the 2014 changes which have seen more than 2,000 agricultural buildings being allowed to be converted to much-needed homes.
The Rural Planning Review, jointly published by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is the latest milestone in the delivery of the Government’s Rural Productivity Plan, launched last summer by Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and Environment Secretary, Elizabeth Truss.
The plan sets out new measures to boost the rural economy by investing in education and skills, improving infrastructure and connectivity, and simplifying planning laws for rural businesses and communities. Already the Government is delivering on these objectives, designed to drive up productivity and ensure the countryside becomes an ever more attractive place for people to live, work, start a business and bring up a family.
Since the plan’s launch the government is:
- Offering a subsidised satellite broadband connection for homes and businesses in some of the most remote areas of the UK.
- Better connecting hardworking people from across the country through Regional Air Connectivity Funding for new routes from Norwich, Southampton, Carlisle, Oxford and Newquay Airports.
- Creating new Enterprise Zones in smaller towns and rural areas.
- Launching a Call for Evidence to review the current threshold for agricultural buildings to be converted to residential use.
- Planning to introduce a broadband Universal Service Obligation by 2020.
- Piloting a scheme to deliver 30 hours of free childcare for working parents in rural areas including Northumberland, Staffordshire and Hertfordshire from September 2016.
View the press release
