Briefings and responses

The planning process needs developers, councils and local communities to work together to create effective partnerships. The earlier in the planning process these relationships are built, the more likely it is that positive outcomes will be achieved for local communities from new development.

This LGA briefing provides a summary of the NPPF consultation proposals likely to be of most interest to local authorities.

We are pleased to submit some headline views on the draft regulations which will enable the creation, via further statutory instruments, of locally- led New Town Development Corporations.

The Autumn Budget has taken a step forward by lifting the housing borrowing cap for some councils. We welcome this announcement, but it does not go far enough.

Councils are working hard to deliver the right kind of homes, and are currently approving nine out of ten planning permissions.

Councils are working hard to deliver the right kind of homes, and are currently approving nine out of ten planning permissions. However, planning departments are severely under-resourced. Taxpayers are subsidising the costs of planning applications by around £200 million a year.

Local government supports the collective national ambition to build one million new homes by 2020, but house building is currently well below the levels required for an efficient and fully functioning housing market.

Local government's ambition is much greater than the White Paper, which lacks substantive measures to support councils in enabling housing growth, and to build the genuinely affordable homes for those at the sharp end of the housing crisis.

A summary of the key developments for local government on Neighbourhood Planning and Local development documents.

Neighbourhood Planning Bill, House of Lords, Second Reading, 17 January 2017 Key messages