Housing minister Grant Shapps has confirmed that the Government is committed to bringing in legislation allowing the creation of Local Housing Trusts which would have powers to undertake housing development which would not need specific planning applications.
Proposals for this new breed of Trusts will be included in the forthcoming Decentralisation and Localism Bill, due to surface this autumn.
He explained that the trusts would have to show they had the support of the local community for planned housing developments, and would have to meet some basic planning criteria – but would not need to lodge specific planning applications.
Any profits made from new developments would have to be reinvested in the local community, and the land would remain with the housing trust – regardless of what happened to the houses.
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