The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivered his 2015 Autumn Statement and Spending Review on 25 November 2015.
Within the statement, the Chancellor made known the Government's commitment to housing supply and home ownership, to be facilitated by a more streamlined planning system.
The key announcements included:
- Local plans: The establishment of a new delivery test on local authorities, to ensure delivery against the number of homes set out in local plans.
- Neighbourhood plans: Ensuring that local communities can allocate land for housing through neighbourhood plans, even if the land is not allocated for housing in the local plan.
- Starter homes: The Government will amend planning policy to ensure the release of unused and previously undeveloped brownfield land for starter homes, and support regeneration of brownfield sites in the greenbelt by enabling such sites to be developed in the same way as brownfield sites elsewhere, provided that starter homes are developed.
- Section 106 agreements and affordable housing: The Government will bring forward proposals for a more standardised approach to viability assessments, and extend the ability to appeal against unviable section 106 agreements to 2018.
- Small and medium enterprise (SME) house builders: Supporting SME house builders by amending planning policy to support small sites and halving the length of the planning guarantee for minor developments.
- Improving planning decision-making: In order to support decision-making in line with local plans and the principles in the National Planning Policy Framework, the Government will bring forward proposals to strengthen the performance regime, by lowering the threshold for the quality of decisions to 10 per cent of all major decisions overturned on appeal. The status of the local plan will be taken into account.
- Planning conditions: The Government has announced that it will review the operation of the deemed discharge of planning conditions.
- Enterprise zones: The Government has announced that 26 new enterprise zones will be created. The purpose of these zones is to encourage economic growth through a mix of financial incentives and a more relaxed planning system.
The fact that these further planning reforms have been announced at the same time as a reasonably fresh set of initiatives, set out in the Housing and Planning Bill, goes through Parliament demonstrates the Government's commitment to housing delivery and home ownership through a streamlined planning framework.
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