23rd
May 2016
At the State Opening new legislation was detailed in the Queen’s speech, one of the most important reforms was included in the Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill, for England and Wales.
The bill is to fast track the development planning process and grants more control over neighbourhood planning to local communities and it makes the councils become clearer in their dealings with the ‘locals’.
Any issuing of compulsory purchase orders will now become more transparent for the communities as they will be changed to become “clearer, fairer, and faster.” The government claims that “the new legislation would tackle the overuse, and in some cases, misuse of certain planning conditions, and thereby ensure that development can get underway without unnecessary delay.”
The bill also details an oncoming consultation looking at whether the Land Registry should be privatised, and promised setting up an independent National Infrastructure Commission with its remit to plan future infrastructure projects.
The Bill’s reform measures comes at a time of the new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, plans to shake up the building sector in efforts to supply more affordable housing.
Head of Residential Development and Investment of a London agent, Charles Holland, said: “Significantly increasing the supply of new homes will enable house prices to remain steady rather than becoming more out of reach for first-time buyers.
“We welcome the idea of greater affordability for the city’s young professionals – but to insist that all developments in London must provide 50 per cent affordable housing will have a significant negative impact on land values, which will result in landowners considering alternate uses or withholding the release of land completely.
“For land already acquired by developers/housebuilders, the new 50 per cent affordable housing requirement will render the majority of new-build projects unviable, thereby stemming the flow of much needed supply. Simply, there can’t be a one-rule-fits-all approach for such a diverse city, and the mayor and his housing chief must be careful not to stymie house building in London if they hope to reach their ambitious target of delivering 50,000 new homes each year.”
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