Town planning has risen up the Government agenda and will play a central role in the aspiration to ‘level up’ the country.
The property profession can expect a huge increase in activity over the year; fasten your seatbelts!
The reforms will have wide ranging implications in all corners of the system: the way that development plans are made, decisions are taken, infrastructure is financed and environmental impacts are assessed. So, what can we expect?
An amended National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)
- National Development Management Policies to guide decision-making
- Design codes – all local authorities to have a design code covering their entire area
- Replacement of CIL and S106 with a new infrastructure levy
- Streamlined procedures for preparing and adopting local plans and neighbourhood plans
- Replacement of Environmental Impact Assessments by Environmental Outcome Reports
- Neighbourhood Priority Statements will be introduced to enable residents to state their preferences regarding development in their local areas
- An overhaul of the CPO system, to help speed up regeneration of brownfield sites
The raft of changes was set out in the Bill introduced on 11 May 2022 (Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament). It is expected that the Bill will begin to have effect in 2024.
