Councils approve nine in ten planning applications and last year worked with developers to permission over 350,000 homes, an 11-year high.
Key messages
- Councils are using planning effectively to deliver the right kind of homes for their communities. Councils approve nine in ten planning applications and last year worked with developers to permission over 350,000 homes, an 11-year high.
- The LGA has called for greater attention to be given to the delays in the delivery of sites that have been granted planning permission and for councils to have greater powers to act where housebuilding has stalled. Developers currently have 423,000 homes with permission that they are still to build.
- The Government is set to bring forward an Accelerated Planning Green Paper. This should include measures to ensure the build out of sites with permission. This could be achieved through having more powers to direct the diversification of products within sites, and a streamlined Compulsory Purchase Order process. Consideration should also be given to introduction of financial penalties to incentivise build out rates, for example council tax charges on developers who do not build out to the rate agreed with a local planning authority.
- The LGA strongly advocates a local plan-led system. However, it should be made quicker and easier to get local plans in place, thereby providing greater certainty to councils, developers and communities, and speeding the delivery of new homes.