Posted 20.01.15
Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has confirmed that business support company TerraQuest is the preferred bidder to take over the running of the Planning Portal.
The Planning Portal is an online, one-stop shop for processing planning applications, with more than 85% of applications in England and Wales now going through that system.
The Government announced last year that it was open to investment from a commercial partner who could continue to develop the service.
After a competitive tendering process, TerraQuest has been chosen as the preferred bidder. As part of their bid, TerraQuest will now look to form a new company with the Government, which will take on the management and delivery of the Planning Portal from early this year.
The current Portal will remain while the new service is developed.
Posted 15.01.15
Councils are set to receive a £1 million boost to their efforts to crack down on unauthorised development and ensure everyone plays by the planning rules.
The new Planning Enforcement Fund gives councils funding towards the legal costs in seeking a court injunction against those who flout planning laws and cause misery to local residents.
In the past, councils had to shoulder the cost of court injunctions. Now, they can apply for up to £10,000 per case to secure a court injunction.
Whilst most planning breaches are resolved without use of the courts, over the last 10 years local planning authorities in England have issued an average of 60 injunctions a year. These are typically for serious breaches of planning rules.
The £1 million fund now provides a significant boost to the capacity of local authorities to take legal action against those flouting planning rules.
A survey of councils identified the average cost of an injunction during 2011 to 2013 was around £13,000. The £1 million fund, with a maximum contribution of £10,000 to each case/council, could pay towards more than 90 court injunctions up to March 2016.
Posted 06.01.15
Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has published a new plain English guide to how England's planning system works, making clear the opportunities for people to get involved in the debate over what gets built in their neighbourhood.
The new guide offers a quick and easy explanation of how the new planning system works, how local and neighbourhood plans are written and adopted locally, and how to go about obtaining planning permission.
Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis said:
"The previous system of top-down targets left residents powerless in the face of local development - these reforms have reversed this, and put people back in control.
"1,200 communities are involved in neighbourhood plans and 80% of authorities have published a local plan - this plain English guide gives all the information anyone would need to get involved in the local decision-making process."
Click here for a copy of the Plain English guide to the planning system.
