Government Launches consultation to reform the planning system

The Government has published a consultation which sets to overall the planning system which it says is outdated and sluggish and not focused enough on demand and design.
 
The consultation focuses on three main areas.

• Planning for development and how Local Plans could be better focused to speed up and streamline the planning process.
• Planning for beautiful and sustainable places, including a proposal to develop local quality and design codes which would be more binding on decisions about development; and
• Planning for infrastructure and connected places, which looks at different options for securing levy’s from developers and a proposed mandatory ‘Infrastructure Levy’.

 
The proposed changes also aim to increase numbers of SME builders. Over the past 30 years to proportion of new homebulding built by SME builders has dropped from 40% to 12% today.
 
The consultation lasts six weeks and can be found here at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future