Director of external affairs for the Home Builders Federation, John Slaughter, said that despite new government laws loosening the current restrictions on planning, he didn’t expect there to be a boom in applications.
Slaughter suggested that an enormous increase of applications for minor extensions and projects had led to the White Paper being drawn up. With Communities’ secretary Ruth Kelly recently revealing that planning permission for household extensions will be easier to obtain as a result of the White Paper. These type of applicationshave doubled over the last 12 years to around 330,000 a year.
In response to whether or not the development would increase demand for extensions, Slaughter said: “In making it easier for people to carry out these projects, then yes it will a bit. But the premise of the White Paper is that applications have increased enormously anyway for minor extensions and projects of that kind.
“They’re essentially proposing relaxation of the rules to ease the burden on the planning system, because the level of demand is already so high.”
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