The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has delivered his last Budget of this parliament offering little hope for the infrastructure of heritage management or its role in sustainable development, though outlining some relevant changes, with headline changes that include:
- allowing public spending to grow in line with national income in 2019-20, ending the public spending cuts a year earlier than planned
- extending the City Deal model to Aberdeen, Cardiff and Inverness – City Deals being agreements that allow the city to take responsibility for decisions that affect its area, including helping businesses grow, creating economic growth and decide how public money should be spent – and to expand a number of Enterprise Zones
- consultations that could affect the heritage: on the reform of the compulsory purchase regime, to support the government’s commitment to improve the consenting programme for support brownfield development, and on the reform of the Landfill Communities Fund to accelerate the spending of funds on community projects, reduce administrative costs and simplify administrative processes
- that the Government will provide a further £40 million to the Listed Places of Worship – Roof Repair Fund to support vital roof repairs in 2015 to 2017
- so-called capacity funding to support Bicester’s ambition to become a garden town and £1m funding to allow the London Land Commission to produce a database of public sector land and map all brown field land in the capital
- confirming proposals to devolve planning powers over sightlines and wharves to the Mayor London.
Compulsory purchase regime consultation
