Last Wednesday's Autumn Statement includes many updates on the state of the planning sector and a look ahead to future proposed reforms.
In his speech, George Osborne reiterated his desire to create a "Northern powerhouse". This follows recent stories that further devolution will be given to English cities, and in Manchester in particular. Manchester will be given their own directly-elected mayor, akin to Boris Johnson's role in London, who will be given powers of planning, transport, housing and policing. There are also reports that powers will be given to the cities of Leeds and Sheffield.
The Chancellor also stated in his statement that the Government will do more to promote development on small sites. Osborne said the government would "work ... with industry and local authorities to test whether more can be done to support the approval of small sites in the planning system", and that the government would be "publishing new data on local authorities' performance in meeting their statutory duty to process smaller planning applications within eight weeks".
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