Today the Prime Minister gave an insight in to the eagerly anticipated Housing and Planning Bill which is due to be published later this month. In his announcement Mr Cameron set out plans for: a new legal duty to deliver Starter Homes on all ‘reasonably sized’ new developments; automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites; and proposals to make permanent the current (time limited) permitted development right to allow offices to be converted into homes without the need for planning permission.
Clearly the ‘devil’ will be in the detail with many of these proposals. However, the permitted development right for offices into residential has been in operation since 2013 and was due to expire on 30th May 2016, with the Government citing that there have been nearly 4,000 conversions given the go ahead to date.
Other elements believed to be contained within the Bill include an obligation for local planning authorities to have an adopted local plan in place by 2017, and a duty on councils to allocate land to people who want to build their own home.
We will look to provide further information and analysis of the Housing and Planning Bill once it has been published.