Oxford, 4 June 2014, This year’s Queen’s Speech on 4th June 2014 included a number of proposals and supporting statements relating to planning and the delivery of new housing.

Her Majesty’s Speech confirmed the government’s commitment to increasing housing supply and home ownership ‘...by reforming the planning system, enabling new locally-led garden cities and supporting small house building firms.’

Key proposed initiatives include:

• Legislating in the new Infrastructure Bill to create a basis for an Allowable Solutions offsetting mechanism, to help deliver the zero carbon policy.1

• Permitting public sector land to be transferred directly from arms-length bodies to the Homes and Communities Agency, reducing bureaucracy and managing land more effectively.

• Providing development finance to support smaller builders to develop new homes across the country and scaling back the imposition of Section 106 levies on small-scale development.

• Introducing a £150 million repayable fund to support up to 10,000 new service plots for custom-build homes, as well as consulting on how to implement a new Right to Build to give custom-builders the right to land in their local area.

• Through the introduction of secondary legislation, allow for a locally supported garden city to be built in Ebbsfleet, backed by an Urban Development Corporation.  A Locally-Led Garden Cities prospectus was also published in April, outlining the support Government will offer to other areas interested in new locally led Garden Cities.

• Helping speed up the time taken for sites granted planning permission to be built out, including reforming unwieldy procedures and conditions attached to existing planning permissions, whilst protecting environmental safeguards.

• Amending secondary legislation to further reform change of use rules to make it easier for empty and redundant buildings to be converted into productive use, supporting brownfield regeneration and increase the supply of new homes.

• Legislating to sell high value government land, encouraging development and increasing housing.

There was also confirmation that ministers will continue to promote the Help to Buy and Right to Buy schemes to support home ownership

Full details of the Queen’s Speech legislative proposals can be read here.

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1  The Zero Carbon Home standard will be set at Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, but the legislation will allow developers to build to Level•4 as long as they offset through the allowable solutions scheme to achieve Code 5.

Small sites, which are most commonly developed by small scale house builders, will be exempt from requirements above Code Level 4. The definition of a small site will be consulted on shortly, and set out in regulation.