Part 1: New Homes in England Chapter 1: Starter Homes Section 5: Planning permission: provision of starter homes
This section contains a new duty that applies to decisions on planning applications. This follows the announcement in the Government’s Productivity Plan published in July 2015. This new requirement, to be brought into force by regulations, is intended to ensure that starter homes become a common feature of new residential developments across England.
	This section provides that an English planning authority (which is either a local planning authority or the Secretary of State) will only be able to grant planning permission for certain residential developments if specified requirements relating to starter homes are met.
	These requirements are to be set out in regulations. The requirements could include the provision of a particular number or proportion of starter homes on site or the payment of a commuted sum to the local planning authority for the provision of starter homes. The Secretary of State will have flexibility to apply different requirements to different types of residential developments and to different areas, including conferring discretions on local planning authorities.
	For example, this section would enable the Secretary of State, through regulations, to require that in relation to applications for residential development above a certain size there must be a planning obligation (under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) securing a certain proportion of starter homes on the site.
	The regulations may also specify that certain types of residential development should be exempt, or that certain areas should have a higher starter home requirement, or that local planning authorities should have discretion about certain requirements. Regulations must give local planning authorities discretion on the requirement on rural exception sites.