Introduction
On 26 October 2023 the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill which has been the subject of much prolonged Parliamentary debate finally received Royal Assent and is now known as the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (the Act).
The Act has yet to be printed and so in the meantime unfortunately it is necessary for one to work their way through the various rounds of amendments made when the Act was in Bill form which are published on the Parliament website at the link below:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3155/publications
Planning reforms under the Act
Our firm has previously published blog posts discussing the reforms to the planning system under the Act when it was in Bill form since the time it was originally introduced to Parliament back in May 2022 which can be accessed at the links below:
https://planningclaritylegal.co.uk/2023/01/03/planning-legal-update-for-the-new-year/
https://planningclaritylegal.co.uk/2022/05/13/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill/
The Act will introduce significant reforms to the planning system, including most notably in our view the introduction of an Infrastructure Levy, a new section 73B power to amend planning permissions where the amendments are not substantially different in effect, changing the enforcement period to 10 years for all breaches of planning control, and allowing local planning authorities to refuse to determine planning applications where the developer has not implemented previous planning permissions or built developments out unreasonably slow.
More still to come!
Although the wording of the Act is now in its final form, most of the Act has yet to come into operation and it is expected that there will be a large number of additional consultations and secondary legislation to be introduced in relation to the Act to bring its various provisions into effect.
In addition to the Act, we are also expecting the Government to publish shortly a revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework following on from its consultation on this back in December 2022 so plenty more still to come!
Note: all comments and views expressed in this blog are merely opinions and provided for information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice which can be relied upon. Should you require legal advice on a matter then please contact us
