During his closing speech at this week’s Conservative Party conference, Prime Minister David Cameron outlined his latest plans to reform housing policy through “a national crusade to get homes built”. Mr Cameron set out that these proposals would represent a “dramatic shift” in housing policy, with “those old rules which said to developers you can build on this site but […]
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DCLG to Appeal against High Court ruling on affordable housing threshold
Following a judgement in the High Court in July 2015 which removed the Government’s 10 units (5 in rural areas) or 1000sqm threshold for delivering affordable housing (click here for more details), permission has this week been granted by the government to appeal against the ruling. The policy had exempted small housing developments from the requirement to provide or contribute to affordable […]
Swanage Local Plan published
Purbeck District Council has published the Swanage Local Plan Pre-submission Document for public consultation. The plan sets out a vision for Swanage for the period up to 2027 and provides the strategy for the delivery of development and supporting infrastructure within the Town, including 200 new homes. Sites for new housing in Swanage have been identified […]
Housing Minister sets up panel to help “streamline” the local plan-making process
Housing Minster Brandon Lewis has set up a panel to consider how the process of local plan preparation can be simplified with the aim of speeding up the time that it takes local authorities to produce an up-to-date local plan. The Minister’s latest announcement follows his commitment outlined in July this year that local authorities […]
Merger proposed for South East Dorset Councils
The local authorities of Bournemouth, Christchurch, East Dorset and Poole have recently announced that they are jointly exploring the possibility of forming a new single Council to cover their respective geographic areas. This would see all functions undertaken by the existing councils in these areas, including services currently run by Dorset County Council in Christchurch […]
RTPI President visits the South West Region
The President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Janet Askew, recently met with planners and council leaders in and around Bournemouth as part of a two day tour of the South West region. Janet also took the opportunity to visit the Boscombe Regeneration Scheme and Poole Bridge Regeneration Initiative, ending the tour in Purbeck. Brett […]