Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to (a) reduce delays in minor planning applications and (b) increase the number of homes built by local building firms.
Gavin Barwell
In the Budget, the Government announced £3 billion of loans to house builders. The fund will consist of £2 billion in long term loans and £1 billion in short term loans. The long term element is focused on delivering infrastructure to support a strong future pipeline of housing supply, and will help unlock 160,000 – 200,000 homes. The short term element aims to diversify and support innovation in the house building industry by supporting small and medium builders, custom builders, and the use of innovative methods of construction.
In July, the Government launched the £100 million Housing Growth Fund, a partnership between the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Lloyds Banking Group to help smaller builders access the finance they need to build more homes and grow their businesses. The Fund is a £100 million vehicle capitalised by Lloyds and the HCA and is supporting the growth of SME house builders and expansion in the UK housing stock. The Government has also created the British Business Bank which has facilitated £782 million of new lending and investment in 2013/14 and aims to unlock up to £10 billion of financing for smaller business over the next 5 years.
Small builders will soon be able to apply to their local planning authority for ‘permission in principle’ which will enable them to gain more upfront certainty on the suitability of small sites for housing-led development, before they need to develop detailed and often costly development proposals. This will reduce the risk for small local builders to enter the market.
Through the Neighbourhood Planning Bill introduced on 7 September, the Government proposes to reform and speed up the planning process by minimising delays caused by unnecessary or overly burdensome planning conditions. The Bill measures will ensure that pre-commencement planning conditions are only used by local planning authorities where they are absolutely necessary, and that applicants are in agreement before they are imposed.
The Government took powers in the Housing and Planning Act 2016 to enable us to extend to non-major planning applications the successful performance regime for major applications, which has seen the proportion of major applications determined on time rising from 57% in July to September 2012, the quarter in which the performance regime was first announced, to 82% in the most recent quarter, the highest figure on record.
