Housing targets cancelled

Housing targets have been cancelled but Councils can now bring forward any plans they like provided they are supported by 50% of the local people.

Grant Shapps has said :

"Whether in a village, town or city, it is local people who best know the housing challenges their community faces. I want every community to have the tools they need to work together and find appropriate local solutions.

"That's why the Localism Bill will mean that the new Community Right to Build won't just be available for countryside communities - it will be open to anyone with the drive and vision to build homes wherever they live in the country.

"These community-led developments won't need normal planning permission, but will instead need to pass the test of public opinion, and gain the support of more than half of voters in a local referendum. I hope this will prompt neighbourhoods up and down the country to consider the housing needs of their communities, and take up their right to build."

Cancellation of Regional Targets has been resisted in Norwich but elsewhere in the country there have been sharp downward revisions in numbers since May. This is a selection from the BBC Website

  • Exeter: 3,000
  • Torbay: 5,000
  • Bristol City: 9,560
  • Luton & Stevenage: 10,650
  • Northampton, Daventry & S Northants: 12,125
  • North Somerset: 13,350
  • Source: Tetlow King

Of course if the plan is not sound then it cannot be executed.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting but confusing! Does Norwich's 'resistance' mean councils can choose to opt out of this? That would make the whole 'local-centric' policy meaningless, but what do you mean about Norwich?

    And who is expected to put forward these house-building proposals - ordinary folk, developers, local authorities? And does this mean that the normal planning system is being abolished, with every proposal decided by a local referndum (sounds nightmarishly complicated, not likely to speed things up as I thought the govt. wanted).

    Could SNUB please publish some links to websites where more info can be found on this?

    Thanks.

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  2. This might be a start:
    www.communities.gov.uk/news/planningandbuilding/1794971

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great News. Does this mean that the GNDP Quango will now come into the real world and leave their developer friends behind, or will they find another way to break the law behind closed doors. What about the 3,200 residents in the NE Triangle who are against the Ecotown ?
    Will they be listened to at last. Come on Mr Pickles get this Quango in order

    ReplyDelete