- Properly resource planning departments by allowing them to set their own planning fees. Taxpayers currently subsidise nearly £180 million per annum to cover funding shortfalls.
- Remove nationally set permitted development rights, giving councils and local communities the ability to shape the area they live in.
- Greater access to funding for local infrastructure to ensure the effective delivery of the necessary infrastructure required to support development in a council’s area and across England.
- Support councils to prime the local economy by bringing public investment projects, such as housing, forward. This will also help develop and grow a skills base in the newly emerging green economy and support the Government’s net zero carbon targets.
- Make some of the temporary COVID-19 planning responses permanent. For example, building on councils’ innovative use of technology to make the system more efficient, transparent, democratic, and support the Government’s digital agenda.
- Support councils to build the 100,000 affordable homes a year needed to provide people with the opportunity to live in safe, secure housing.
- Ensure that new government initiatives do not reduce the general provision of social and affordable rented homes where they are needed. This will ensure that the right mix of homes – to rent and buy – are available and affordable to people that need them.
- Support councils to access the tools needed to become exemplars for using new smart technologies and sustainable construction methods.
- Create a clear path for addressing climate change and the decarbonisation of the planning system by reviewing planning documents, including the NPPF, to ensure consistency against the national net zero target.
- Use green infrastructure to deliver greater resilience, long-term cost savings, environmental outcomes, and grow our green economy.
