New funding to help
speed up planning decisions and help deliver, quality new homes has been
announced by Housing Minister Dominic Raab.
The first wave of
the Planning
Delivery Fund, totalling £15.8 million, has been awarded to enable councils
to process more applications, implement new reforms and also train planners to
tackle the housing challenges faced by their local area.
This funding boost
will support local authorities working together on ambitious new joint local
plans and core strategies, which will engage residents on how future
development will take place in their areas and outline the locations suitable
for new homes where demand is high.
The funding will
also support greater best practice and innovation within councils as they
decide planning applications, resulting in more being determined over a shorter
period of time.
Money awarded to
bidders will also allow local authorities to access the latest expertise on
design and town planning, driving up the quality of new homes built.
Housing and Planning
Minister Dominic Raab said: "This cash boost ensures councils have the
resources needed to make quicker decisions on planning applications, delivering
quality housing at a faster rate.
"It’s part of
our strategy to build the homes this country needs whilst also supporting
residents to have their say on the kind of development that takes place in
their area."
This first wave of
funding has been split into 3 streams that will assist in delivering new homes
across England: The Joint Working Fund (£9.4 million), Design Quality Fund
(£4.82 million) and Promoting Innovation Fund (£1.07 million).
A total of 68
projects from Gateshead to Cornwall will receive funding from the Planning
Delivery Fund across all 3 streams, from 2017 until 2019. This will help
enable:
- Bath and North East Somerset
council to deliver a new master plan and implement an independent design
review, receiving £310,000
- London Borough of Hackney to
implement new planning applications manager software following an award of
£212,000, which will increase the rate of application decisions made
- Dudley Metropolitan borough
council to bring forward a second Black Country Joint Core Strategy, which
will receive £570,000 and support the development needs of Dudley,
Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton
- The Greater Manchester
Combined Authority to deliver a new Place Team, create new Mayoral
Development Corporations and provide additional resource to deliver
investment and will receive £950,000.
The launch of this
fund will give successful councils a greater capability to implement the
government’s reforms of the planning system and comes as the Ministry for
Housing prepares to launch its revised National Planning Policy Framework later
this spring.
