Introduction
With the appointment of a new Labour Government it is all change for the UK and in this blog post we discuss the new leadership team for planning and the expected reforms to the planning system to be introduced by the new Government as set out in the Labour party election manifesto
Who are the new leadership team?
The new Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has also been appointed to the role of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities which given her seniority in the new Government shows the importance of this brief. Ms Rayner takes over this role from Michael Gove. Matthew Pennycook has been appointed as the new Housing Minister
What are Labour’s proposed reforms to the planning system?
Labour in its election manifesto (https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labour-manifesto-2024-sign-up/) proposes wide spread reforms to the planning system
The most significant of these proposed reforms include the following:
- To encourage new development, Labour says it will take tough action to ensure that local planning authorities have up-to-date local plans and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development
- On housing development, Labour promises to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the course of the next Parliament. It will immediately update the National Planning Policy Framwork to restore mandatory housing targets. It will also promote more affordable homes by strengthening planning obligations (under s106 agreements) to ensure new developments provide affordable homes and support councils and housing associations to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply
- Labour says it will prioritise the development of brownfield sites, but take a more strategic approach to green belt land designation and release to build more homes in the right places including the release of lower-quality ‘grey belt’ land
- There will be provision of funding for additional planning officers for local planning authorities by increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents. Labour says this will provide up to 300 new planning officers
- Labour will develop a 10-year infrastructure strategy and establish a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority to set strategic infrastructure priorities and oversee delivery of infrastructure projects
- It will partner with local communities to build a new generation of new towns
- Labour says it will tackle the complex issue of nutrient neutrality by implementing solutions to unlock the building of homes affected but without weakening environmental protections
Our comments
The planning system in England currently faces several challenges, whether this be the inadequate resourcing of local planning authorities, delays in the determination of planning applications and planning appeals, the continuing housing crisis, inadequate infrastructure delivery, or nutrient neutrality issues holding up housing development, and the list goes on. As with all new governments which make promises to reform the planning system, time will tell whether the new Labour Government is successful at tacking these challenges, however we would welcome any improvement given the current state of the planning system which clearly isn’t functioning as it should
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
