Policy background Housing supply and the speed of delivery Streamlining the planning system
Effective regeneration of areas, which could comprise considerable amounts of new housing, often requires the compulsory purchase of land or property. This Act streamlines the process, seeks to make powers of entry for survey in connection with a proposal to acquire land fairer and more consistent, clarifies the remedies available to the Courts where a compulsory purchase order is successfully challenged, improves how compensation is paid, and harmonises procedures for settling disputes about material detriment.
	The Secretary of State previously could not grant approval for housing as part of an application for a nationally significant infrastructure project, submitted under the Planning Act 2008. This meant either temporary accommodation for workers had to be demolished once construction was completed, or a separate planning application had to be made. This Act changes the approval system to allow developers to include an element of housing as part of their application for consent for an infrastructure project deemed of national significance.
	On average, the neighbourhood planning process takes two years to complete. This Act seeks to reduce the length of the process. It introduces powers for the Secretary of State to prescribe circumstances in which a local planning authority must designate the whole of a neighbourhood area applied for, and to prescribe dates by which local planning authorities must make key decisions. It also allows the Secretary of State to intervene on the decision to send a plan to referendum in limited circumstances. The Act also enables neighbourhood forums to require a local planning authority to notify them of planning applications in their area, with the intention of enabling them to participate more effectively in local planning.
	This Act widens the range of matters which a development order may allow local authorities to consider in a prior approval for building operations, beyond approval of matters related to the siting and design of buildings where permission is granted under permitted development rights for the erection, extension, or alteration of any buildings. Any permitted development rights to allow for building operations would be expected to reduce planning application costs.
	Planning obligations can help mitigate the impact of development to make it acceptable in planning terms. The negotiation of such obligations can become protracted. The Act provides for the Secretary of State to appoint a person to help resolve outstanding issues about planning obligations, and requires that person to produce a report to set timeframes setting out steps taken to resolve those issues and, where issues have not been resolved, recommendations. This is intended to help speed up the negotiation of such obligations. This Act also allows the Secretary of State, through regulations, to place restrictions or conditions on the enforceability of obligations relating to affordable housing.
	Implementing alternative delivery models, such as outsourcing and shared services, are common for some local authority services but less so for planning services. Choice for the user also has an important part to play in the provision of effective public services. The Act allows for the introduction of pilot schemes to test the benefits of introducing competition in the processing (but not determination) of applications for planning permission.