Overview of the Structure Promoting growth and facilitating provision of infrastructure and related matters
Section 1 provides applicants for planning permission with the option to apply directly to the Secretary of State if a council has been designated on the basis of not performing adequately in determining planning applications.
	Section 2 broadens the powers of the Secretary of State to award costs between the parties at planning appeals and certain other planning proceedings, and to recover the Secretary of State’s own costs from the parties.
	Section 3 broadens the powers of the Secretary of State to award costs between the parties at Compulsory Purchase Order inquiries. These inquiries are generally conducted on behalf of the Secretary of State by Inspectors in the Planning Inspectorate. It provides consistency with the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“the 1990 Act”).
	Section 4 allows the Secretary of State to provide in a development order which gives planning permission for change of use, that the local authority or the Secretary of State may approve certain matters relating to the new use of the land; and it allows such an order to provide, as respects permitted development within the curtilage of a dwelling house in England, that the local authority may consider the impact of the development on the amenity of neighbouring properties. It also provides that a local planning authority can decline to determine repeat applications for such approvals.
	Section 5 amends the primary legislative framework that governs what local authorities can and cannot ask for in support of a planning application to ensure that such requests are reasonable and relate to matters that are likely to be material planning considerations.
	Section 6 removes the powers in England for the Secretary of State to intervene in and reject local development orders and a requirement on local planning authorities to report on them. It introduces a new requirement that where a local planning authority in England adopts a local development order they must submit a copy of the order to the Secretary of State after the order is adopted.
	Section 7 provides for applications and appeals to modify or discharge the affordable housing elements of agreements entered into under section 106 of the 1990 Act to make developments viable.
	Section 8 removes an anomaly whereby currently general consents for the disposal of land by local authorities can be given under the Local Government Act 1972 for less than best consideration but cannot be given under the 1990 Act where land is held for planning.
	Section 9 adds the need to promote economic growth as another consideration to be taken into account in making regulations under section 109 of the Communications Act 2003.
	Section 10 and Schedule 3 change the current regime of fixed reviews of mineral planning permissions every 15 years to give mineral planning authorities in England local discretion over when reviews are required, subject to provision that the interval between any two such reviews cannot be shorter than under the current regime.
	Sections 11 and 12 enable the stopping up or diversion of highways and public paths under the 1990 Act to commence before planning permission has been granted in all cases. This will speed up the development process as at present the applicant must, in most cases, wait until planning permission has been granted before initiating the process.
	Section 13 amends section 31 of the Highways Act 1980 to facilitate the process for landowners to make statements and declarations to counter rights of way claims, aligning it with the equivalent process in relation to town and village greens.
	Section 14 amends the Commons Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”) so as to reduce the period within which a town or village green application can be made (after the requisite 20 years of recreational use “as of right” has ceased) from two years to one year.
	Section 15 amends the 2006 Act so as to allow landowners to deposit a map and statement to protect their land from registration as a town or village green, whilst allowing access to the land.
	Section 16 excludes the right to apply to register land as a town or village green under section 15(1) of the 2006 Act where any of a number of specified events occurs.
	Section 17 amends an existing power to allow regulations to prescribe more flexible fees in relation to applications under Part 1 of the 2006 Act, including applications to register land as a town or village green.