The Government has produced draft guidance to accompany the Housing and Planning Bill to provide flexibility to enable housing which is related to the infrastructure to be consented as part of a Development Consent Order for a nationally significant infrastructure project.
At present, development consent may be granted for ‘associated development’ which is intrinsically linked to the infrastructure project or needed to support it, such as temporary workers accommodation. However, the consequence of this for developers of nationally significant infrastructure projects who also wish to include permanent housing in their proposals, means that they are forced to seek planning permission from the local planning authority through a separate application under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
The draft guidance indicates that the Secretary of State will be able to grant consent for up to 500 dwellings in a single Development Consent Order. Details within the guidance also set out the types of infrastructure that could be supported by housing, as well as criteria concerning the functional link or geographic proximity of housing to the proposed item(s) of infrastructure.
The guidance will be contingent on clause 107 of the Housing and Planning Bill achieving Royal Assent.