Responding to publication of the Planning & infrastructure Bill, John Dickie, Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, said: “The Government’s ambitious planning reforms will help to lay the foundations to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery in the medium to long-term.
“Mandatory training for planning committees and reforms to the level at which decisions are made should improve the application process. Steps to simplify approvals for brownfield sites should encourage developers to bring more of these schemes forward. And streamlining the process for delivering nationally significant infrastructure should help to prevent these vital projects from being stalled for years.
“Another welcome step is allowing cash-strapped local authorities to increase planning fees. This money should be ring-fenced to ensure a more reliable and efficient service that will encourage additional private investment.
“These reforms now need to be matched with short-term interventions to get shovels in the ground quickly, including the spending review delivering a new and significant affordable housing programme and a rent settlement that provides housing associations with the ability to invest in building new homes.”