Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis is exploring options for amending the so-called ‘section 106’ agreements in order to speed up housebuilding.
Section 106 agreements put requirements on planning applicants to make the proposals suitable for the area.
While they certainly can bring a lot of benefits to local communities they often are the reason for delays in the planning applications process. This slows down the construction of homes many communities urgently need.
Minister Lewis will be gathering views on ways to get planning permission and workers on construction sites more quickly by 19 March.
The proposals for speeding up the process include:
- setting clear time limits so section 106 negotiations are completed in line with the existing 8 to 13 week target for planning applications to be processed rather than letting them slow the whole planning process down
- requiring parties to start discussions at the beginning of the planning application process, rather than the current system where negotiations can often start towards the end
- a dispute resolution process where negotiations stall preventing development
- using standardised documents to avoid agreements being drafted from scratch for each and every application
- potential legislation in the next Parliament to give new measures teeth
This is the latest in a range of measures the government has taken to improve the planning system. Housebuilding is among the key issues on the government’s long-term economic plan.
With around 700,000 new homes provided since the end 2009, targets for the future are to get Britain building more and quicker. Industry experts say the construction of 200,000 homes per year is a realistic goal. Housebuilding figures for 2014 showed a 10 per cent rise on the year to 137,010.
