The Welsh Government began consultation on proposals to alter the planning system in Wales through changes to primary legislation, secondary legislation, policy and guidance.
Source: Positive Planning: Proposals to reform the planning system in Wales, Welsh Government
Links: Consultation document | Draft Bill | Welsh Government press release
Date: 2013-Dec
An article examined the degree of correspondence between social and tenure mix in English neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods were generally more mixed in occupation than tenure. Tenure mix had a positive relationship with occupational mix: but the relationship was moderate and contrary to conventional wisdom – occupational mix and tenure mix increased with level of area deprivation. Tenure mix was higher in the tighter housing markets of London and the southern region. If policy were genuinely concerned with increasing social mix, attention needed to focus on affluent areas.
Source: Mark Livingston, Ade Kearns, and Nick Bailey, 'Delivering mixed communities: the relationship between housing tenure mix and social mix in England's neighbourhoods', Housing Studies, Volume 28 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Dec
A think-tank report examined planning policy in England. It collated contributions from Liberal Democrat thinkers on a range of topics, including: key challenges; spatial scale; growth; and communities. The report would inform Liberal Democrat party policy.
Source: Planning Problem or Solution? Views and suggestions from key commentators, Local Government Information Unit
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Nov
A think-tank report examined the barriers to home ownership. The report said that the existing United Kingdom system of land and property taxation could be improved, although some of the claims made for property and land taxation were unsupported by the evidence. It called for changes to the planning system and a commitment to building 300,000 new homes each year from 2015 to 2020, including one garden city.
Source: , Taxing Issues? Reducing housing demand or increasing housing supply, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Nov
An article examined neighbourhood planning in Leeds, a city in northern England. It presented two contrasting examples of neighbourhood planning work in the city: Thorp Arch (rural location with large industrial estate), and Holbeck (inner-city, deprived area). It said that Leeds had seen a particularly high level of interest in neighbourhood planning, in contrast with many other local authorities. Although initial interest had arisen from the more affluent suburbs, the more deprived, inner-city communities had also became involved in a more meaningful decision-making process. The article suggested that this had heralded a shift in approach from 'doing to' to 'working with'.
Source: Phil Crabtree and Ian Mackay, 'Neighbourhood planning: a new approach to consensus building?', Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Volume 7 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Nov
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Code for Sustainable Homes had worked alongside building regulations since 2007 to embed a degree of sustainability in the building of new homes. It recommended that the government should rethink its decision to 'wind down' the code following its review of housing standards.
Source: Code for Sustainable Homes and the Housing Standards Review, Eighth Report (Session 2013–14), HC 192, House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | UK-GBC press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Nov
A briefing paper examined the key recent planning reform announcements and proposals.
Source: Louise Smith, Planning Reform Proposals, Standard Note SN/SC/6418, House of Commons Library
Links: Briefing paper
Date: 2013-Oct
A think-tank report said that planning regulations in England should be simplified in order to boost private sector housebuilding and construction. It said that 118 existing statutes should be consolidated into a single planning Act. 'Sunset clauses' should be introduced in any new regulations affecting the construction industry to allow their impact to be reviewed.
Source: Keith Boyfield and Inna Ali, Simplified Planning: The case for sunset clauses, Centre for Policy Studies
Links: Report | Summary | Daily Mail report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-May
The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 was given Royal assent. Under the Act:
Developers who proposed 'nationally significant' projects would be able to use a 'fast-track' planning process.
Developers would be allowed to reopen agreements with local councils on developments involving a quota of affordable homes, in cases where the plans had been considered 'economically unrealistic'.
There would be a temporary relaxation on home extensions in England. This proposal was amended (following a vote in the House of Lords) to provide for neighbours to be consulted before extensions could be approved.
An 'employee-ownership' scheme would be created, under which workers who agreed to give up fundamental employment rights would receive £2,000 in shares. Provisions of the scheme were heavily amended (following votes in the House of Lords), including making free legal advice available to those considering the scheme.
Source: Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013, Department for Communities and Local Government, TSO
Links: Act | Explanatory notes | DCLG press release | Civic Voice press release | IER press release | LGA press release | OSS press release | TUC blog post | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Apr
A think-tank report called on policy-makers to reform the planning system in order to allow more homes to be built in styles and formats that were acceptable to older home-owners. This would mean that the younger generation did not face insurmountable obstacles in paying for an ageing population, as it would put a stop to the cycle of ever-rising housing costs.
Source: Alex Morton, Housing and Intergenerational Fairness, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | Inside Housing report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Apr
A study examined whether successful measures used in other countries might be introduced or adapted to help unlock land supply and support higher levels of new housing investment in England. All the countries studied had policies to control urban sprawl and protect agricultural land: unlike England, however, they all had a strategic level of decision-making between national and local. The core elements in an effective planning policy were: incentives and mechanisms to bring forward land for development; responsive growth management policies that recognized both the benefits and costs of growth; and a secure source of funding to provide infrastructure. Most of the effective mechanisms identified already exist in England, though not necessarily in the same form: there was no new 'magic bullet'.
Source: Sarah Monk, Christine Whitehead, Gemma Burgess, and Connie Tang, International Review of Land Supply and Planning Systems, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2013-Mar
A think-tank report said that local councils that failed to hit their own housing targets should have to release land to local people who wanted to design their own homes. It said that custom-designed homes would be more appealing to local communities because they would not be subject to controls over their appearance. The land would be cheaper, since it would be bought by an auction process and there would be fewer planning fees.
Source: Alex Morton, A Right to Build: Local homes for local people, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release | CPRE press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Mar
