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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
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
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