The Planning and Infrastructure Bill was introduced in Parliament today, with measures to hasten planning decisions, remove barriers and boost the delivery of infrastructure included.
The bill comes alongside wider planning reforms, such as the new National Planning Policy Framework, and is a key pillar of Labour’s plans to deliver one-and-a-half million homes.
One of the measures mentioned in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a revamp of planning committees.
The bill proposes a “national scheme of delegation” that will outline which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committees. There will also be control over committee sizes, and councils will have the power to set their own planning fees, which will be reinvested into the system to “speed it up”.
Another measure is the Nature Restoration Fund, which will ensure there is a “win-win for the economy and nature” so builders can meet environmental obligations “faster and at greater scale by pooling contributions to fund larger environmental interventions”.
The bill also proposes compulsory purchase reform, which is when land can be bought for projects that are in the public interest, and will ensure compensation paid to landowners is “not excessive” and that the process of using directions to remove hope value is sped up when in the public interest.
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Inspectors, councils or mayors where there are no objections can take the decision to the Secretary of State.
Development corporations will be strengthened to “make it easier to deliver larger-scale development”, including new towns.
Strategic planning, or “spatial development strategies”, will be brought in to “boost growth by looking across multiple local planning authorities for the most sustainable areas to build and ensuring there is a clear join-up between development needs and infrastructure requirements”.
These plans will be produced by mayors and local authorities in some cases, the government said.
A National Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime will be improved to help deliver projects faster.
More changes will be made to ensure “clean power” projects can be achieved by 2030.
There is also a proposal that those living within 500 metres of new pylons across Great Britain will get £2,500 off their electricity bills over 10 years.
Angela Rayner (pictured), deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, said: We’re creating the biggest building boom in a generation – as a major step forward in getting Britain building again and unleashing economic growth in every corner of the country, by lifting the bureaucratic burden [that] has been holding back developments for too long.
“The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers.”
She continued: “It will help us to deliver the 1.5 million homes we have committed to so we can tackle the housing crisis we have inherited head-on – not only for people desperate to buy a home, but for the families and young children stuck in temporary accommodation and in need of a safe, secure roof over their heads.
“These reforms are at the heart of our Plan for Change, ensuring we are backing the builders, taking on the blockers, and delivering the homes and infrastructure this country so badly needs.”
