Shapps launches community housebuilding plans
Housing minister Grant Shapps has launched Community Right to Build proposals in a bid to drive housebuilding at a local community level.
The proposals, part of the Localism Bill due in the autumn, mean community organisations will be able to green light new local developments without a specific application for planning permission.
The policy is only followed through providing there is ‘overwhelming’ backing for the application – understood to be 80-90% of the community.
Mr Shapps hopes the move will remove bureaucracy from the planning chain, but shadow housing minister John Healey has said the ‘plan won’t work’, as it simply defers bureaucracy rather than removing it.
Mr Healey said: ‘He’s bringing bureaucracy down to village level by requiring communities to set up a housing trust and run a referendum before new homes can be built.’
But Mr Shapps said: ‘Far from the Nimbyism that often hits the headlines, up and down the country there are entire communities willing and eager to give the go-ahead for new developments in their area.
‘The countryside must be a vibrant place to live, and cannot be allowed to become a museum. I want to give communities the power to preserve their villages, which are currently struggling to survive because of a shortage of affordable homes.’
