The Government has introduced the Planning and Infrastructure Bill in order to ‘speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, supporting delivery of the government’s Plan for Change milestones of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England and fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament.’
The Bill has 5 overarching objectives:
- Delivering a faster and more certain consenting process for critical infrastructure
- Introducing a more strategic approach to nature recovery
- Improving certainty and decision-making in the planning system
- Unlocking land and securing public value for large scale investment
- Introducing effective new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning
Tony Mulhall, RICS Senior Specialist – Land & Resources, said: “Getting these reforms right is crucial for achieving the ambitious plans for building that the UK Government set out last summer. Retaining important judicial reviews while limiting the scope for vexatious delays is a proportionate response. This together with an overall reduction in bureaucracy will prove crucial for getting more building projects off the ground. The bill provides a necessary balance between the need to boost building developments, whilst protecting the natural world through a nature restoration fund, driving green initiatives.”
Full details of the bill can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-planning-and-infrastructure-bill/guide-to-the-planning-and-infrastructure-bill
Rico Wojtulewicz, NFB Head of Policy and Market Insight, said: “While we believe the Planning and Infrastructure Bill could go further, we have been lobbying for many of the proposed reforms such as stronger compulsory powers, more effective development corporations, less planning committee interference on a defined site size, and spatial planning.
“These reforms will improve land arrangement opportunities, provide competition and provide transparency on development costs. All while ensuring discretion is minimised rather than being central to decision making.”
The plansintroduce a number of measures that change some fundamental elements of how planning works according to the National Federation of Builders (NFB) and they have raised some concerns over the proposal for local planning departments to set their own fees.
Rico Wojtulewicz added: “Planning fees have already risen twice in the last five years, with no service improvement. An ‘Ofsted for planning’ is essential and application fees should not rise when more than 10% of statutory determination periods are breached. Planning departments should not be able to set their own fees. Growth is impossible in an environment where inefficiency and unaccountability is subsidised.
“While there is still progress to be made, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill demonstrates that planning reform is real and not just a campaign slogan.”
