By Richard Johnstone | 6 September 2012
Prime Minister David Cameron today revealed a series of relaxations to planning rules to boost housebuilding, including removing developers’ obligations to councils to provide affordable homes.
The government hopes the move will provide up to 70,000 new homes and create 140,000 jobs across the construction sector.One of the main changes will allow developers to appeal against planning deals they have made with English town halls to build a proportion of affordable homes as part of the development.
This follows a consultation by the Department for Communities and Local Government last month on whether these ‘planning gain’ or Section 106 agreements should be renegotiated if they were agreed before April 2010. Ministers claim the deals are holding up construction of 75,000 homes following the economic downturn, as developers can no longer afford to meet their obligations.
Today’s announcement goes further, saying that if developers can ‘prove that a council’s costly affordable housing requirements make the project unviable’, they could be removed.
A written ministerial statement from Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles confirmed legislation would be introduced to allow any developer to appeal.
The Planning Inspectorate would then assess how many affordable homes should be removed from the agreement for the site to be ‘viable in current economic conditions’. The existing deal will then be ‘set aside’ for a three-year period, in favour of a new agreement with fewer affordable homes.
However, a DCLG spokesman said that the right of appeal will not apply to other elements of Section 106 agreements, such as investments in road improvements and other infrastructure.
Developers would also be able to bypass local authority planning where councils have ‘a track record of consistently poor performance in the speed or quality’ of their decisions, Pickles said. They would be allowed to opt for the Planning Inspectorate to decide instead.
Other changes announced today include relaxing planning rules for home improvements, such as conservatories, for a limited period.
Cameron admitted that ‘some of the proposals are controversial’, but added: ‘Along with our Housing Strategy, they provide a comprehensive plan to unleash one of the biggest homebuilding programmes this country has seen in a generation.
‘That means more investment around the county, more jobs for our people, and more young families able to realise their dreams and get on the housing ladder.
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However, research published today by the Local Government Association has revealed there is a ‘bumper building backlog’ of 400,000 new homes that have received planning permission but have not yet been completed. Building has yet to start on more than half of approved plots, the Analysis of unimplemented planning permissions for residential dwellings found.
At the current rate of construction it would take developers three and a quarter years to clear the backlog by building all the new homes local authorities have signed off.
LGA chair Sir Merrick Cockell said the figures ‘conclusively prove that local authorities are overwhelmingly saying “yes” to new development and should finally lay to rest the myth that the lack of new homes being built is the fault of the planning system’.
• It has also been revealed that the government’s proposal to underwrite funding for infrastructure schemes will include guaranteeing the debts of housing associations and private sector developers.
The proposals for £40bn of government guarantees, first announced by Chancellor George Osborne in July, will be implemented by the Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill, published today. This will include £10bn of guarantees for new homes.
