Housing and Planning Bill receive Royal Assent

The controversial Housing & Planning Bill has, after a torrid run with multiple defeats in the House of Lords, became law after receiving its Royal Assent. This after the House of Lords agreed not to insist on its final proposed amendments to the bill yesterday.

New measures to help more people buy their own home and get houses built faster became law today. The Act sets out a clear determination from the government to keep the country building while giving hard working families every opportunity to unlock the door to home ownership.

It will give house builders and decision-makers the tools and confidence to provide more homes and further streamline the planning system to accelerate their delivery.

The Housing and Planning Act, as it is now called, introduces a range of changes to the planning system such as ‘permission in principle’ for housing-led developments which will take effect two months after Royal Assent, however other provisions such as pilot schemes testing the use of alternative providers to process planning applications; setting timescales for neighbourhood planning decisions; and requiring councils to keep registers of certain types of land will be introduced immediately.