THE Government has set out its plans to encourage more house building to ease the chronic shortage of homes. Planning processes are to be relaxed so that new homes developments are built more quickly. Changes will include a presumption to approve any applications that promote sustainable development.In his Budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced that the present unwieldy national planning policies will become shorter and more focused. Land auctions of sites already with planning permission will be piloted and rules will be relaxed to make it easier to convert commercial premises in to housing without lengthy change of use processes. The planning process itself will be speeded up, including a 12 month guarantee for the processing of all planning applications, including any appeals. Surplus public land, such as MoD sites, will be freed up quicker to support the creation of new homes and jobs. It will include 'build now, pay later' schemes where house builders will be given surplus government land which they will only pay for once properties built on it are sold. Eric Pickles, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, said: “We are unblocking the complex, costly planning system, regenerating redundant sites and putting the brakes on the years of Whitehall micromanagement that has tied business up in red tape, slowing and stifling growth. “The current planning system is bureaucratic, we will make it easier to navigate.”
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