A new initiative under the government’s National Infrastructure Plan to speed up the planning process for new build developments has been welcomed by housebuilders.
Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, announced measures in a written ministerial statement, including a new commitment to ensuring that the principle of development need only be established once, in order to speed up housing delivery.
The measure underlines previous warning by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) that the multi-step application process was impacting on delivery and also adding unnecessary costs that were harmful to smaller housebuilders.
The HBF confirmed its support for the announced measures, which it said should “reduce the time taken to get applications approved, cut down on risk and get more sites active more quickly”.
"The current system is too slow, overly complex and costly. Such improvements can only help get more sites started more quickly,” explained HBF executive chairman Stewart Baseley.