'An end to the waiting game' for planning decisions

Further reform of the planning system has been announced by the Government: 'a new red tape busting review' will cover the planning application process from start to finish.

The announcement on March 25 was made jointly by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears, Business Secretary John Hutton and Housing and Planning Minister Caroline Flint. Amenity groups will fear the outcome may be reduced opportunity for members of the public to object to planning applications. Ministers stressed the aim was not 'to shift the balance of decision making, weaken important safeguards, or reduce public consultation'; and simultaneously doubled the funding for Planning Aid.Read more

Tackling climate change through the planning system

The Planning Policy Statement (PPS) on Planning and Climate Change was published in December. Among other things it requires all councils to limit carbon emissions by setting targets for using local renewable sources and low carbon energy in new housing developments.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has commissioned Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and Faber Maunsell to develop practice guidance on delivering the policies in the PPS. A working draft of that guidance is now available from ERM's website (www.erm.com/practiceguideance). By publishing a working draft ERM and Faber Maunsell hope to gain a better understanding of the respects in which practitioners want the guidance to be further developed. They are also keen to include as much good practice as possible and draw on early experience of implementing the PPS.Read more

More new homes built in London than any time since the 1970s

More than 33,000 new homes were built in London last year - the largest annual figure since 1977. For the first time this exceeded the Mayor's target that 30,500 new homes should be built each year.

The 11,980 affordable homes built represented a 70% increase since 2000. Londoners now report housing, and particularly affordable housing, as their most important concern. These figures provides a firm basis for the Mayor's new target to build 50,000 new affordable homes over the next three years, helped by increased funding from Government.Read more