Planning Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech
As expected, in her speech at the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen announced that the Government will introduce "laws to modernise the planning system, so that more homes can be built".
Notes accompanying the speech, published this afternoon, clarify that the Planning Bill "will create a simpler, faster and more modern planning system, ensuring homes and infrastructure can be delivered more quickly across England". Whilst this is commendable, it is the same rhetoric that has prefaced pretty much every legislative reform of our planning system in the last 15 years.
The notes also stated that the Bill will "simplify and enhance the EU-derived framework of environmental assessments for developments". Again, recent changes to the environmental assessment regime sought to do this with little practical effect so it will be interesting to see if this can be achieved.
The main elements of the Bill will be:
- Changing local plans so they "provide more certainty over the type, scale and design of development permitted on different categories of land" – this is the introduction a zonal approach to planning as proposed in the White Paper;
- Significantly decreasing the time it takes for developments to go through the planning system;
- Replacing the existing regime of developer contributions and affordable housing funding with "a new more predictable and more transparent levy" – essentially scrapping Community Infrastructure Levy;
- Reforming the framework for locally-led development corporations to "ensure local areas have access to appropriate delivery vehicles to support growth and regeneration".
Timings for the publication of the draft Bill are not yet known, but many commentators are not anticipating anything until Autumn 2021.