Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced a plan to further relax planning laws to try and get more homes built. The aim is to build 300,000 homes a year, and the new announcement clearly signals that the Government believes the planning system is a barrier to development.
The planning system is designed to ensure future building is appropriate, sustainable and right for an area. Planners have a difficult job in trying to balance several factors for each and every planning application, no matter how small the proposed development is. They must take into consideration, amongst other things, environmental, social and cultural impacts as well as potential living standards and whether the standards provided by a development can or will be supported for many years to come.
The Government seems to be targeting permitted development rights once more. It already relaxed permitted development laws to let offices be converted into homes, subject to conditions, which was contentious at the time, leading to concerns that improper development would take place. Now the government wants to ease planning laws to:
However, without proper planning checks, there is a risk that home building could take place in inappropriate areas, or put undue stress on services if more people live in a place with limited key infrastructure such as schools, shops and suitable roads.
The Government will also be launching a register of brownfield sites soon. This will show areas of unused land in order to encourage councils to make the most of that land first.
Mr Jenrick said, "I want everyone, no matter where they live, to have access to affordable, safe, quality housing and live in communities with a real sense of place – as part of our mission to level up, unite and unleash the potential of this country. We must think boldly and creatively about the planning system to make it fit for the future, and this is just the first step, so we can deliver the homes communities need and help more young people onto the ladder."
Only last month, the Local Government Association (LGA) reported that since 2009/2010 over one million homes which have been granted planning permission are still waiting to be built. You can read the full story here.
