Planning Alert January 2012
Welcome to the Michelmores Planning Alert, where we bring you a round-up of the latest news and legal developments affecting the industry. We hope that you find this useful and welcome your feedback. Please contact us with any comments or queries. Items in this issue include:
New Homes Bonus announced for 2012-13 ... Fall in number of vacant dwellings ... Plans for residential development at Taunton approved ... Torbay Council prepares Preliminary Draft Charging Schedule for Community Infrastructure Levy ... Need for transitional arrangements for NPPF reemphasised ... 'Get Britain Building' fund launched
'New Homes Bonus' announced for 2012-13
Councils are to be allocated over £430m for the coming year under this scheme.
The fund is equivalent to one year's worth of council tax raised from new homes and empty homes brought back into use. The council tax raised from these new homes is matched for each of the six years following their development.
Fall in number of long-term vacant dwellings
The number of long-term empty homes in England now stands at approximately 279,000 according to recently published figures. This figure has fallen from 300,000 in the previous year.
Councils and other bodies may apply for government funding to bring long-term vacant dwellings back into use.
Plans for residential development at Taunton approved
Taunton Deane Borough Council has approved a new residential development to include up to 580 new homes at Nerrols, north east of Taunton. The plans were submitted by The Crown Estate.
The application can be viewed by clicking the link below and searching for application number 08/10/0024.
Torbay Council prepares Preliminary Draft Charging Schedule for Community Infrastructure Levy
Torbay Council proposes to have three development charging zones comprising 'town centre', 'out of town centre' and 'out of built-up area'. Notably, retail development in the town centre zone will be levied at a nil rate to encourage such development.
The Charging Schedule is open to public consultation until 6 February 2012.
Need for transitional arrangements for NPPF reemphasised
The Communities and Local Government Committee has recommended that transitional arrangements be put in place for the implementation of the NPPF in April 2012.
The perceived need for such arrangements stems particularly from the statement in the draft NPPF that local authorities should 'grant permission where the local plan is absent, silent, indeterminate or where relevant policies are out of date'.
'Get Britain Building' fund announced
A fund of £420m to 'get Britain building again' has been launched by Housing Minister, Grant Shapps.
The fund is intended to restart building on those sites that have planning permission but where building has stopped because of financial constraints.
We hope that you have found this Planning Alert useful. We welcome your feedback: please let us know what you thought of this newsletter and if there are any areas that you would like us to include in future issues.
For further information on any of these areas, please contact us.
Mark Howard
Associate, Environmental Law
Tel: 01392 687621
Email: mark.howard@michelmores.com
Author: Mark Howard
Category: Property
Last updated: 2012-04-03 16:05:33
