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A new amendment to the Planning & Infrastructure Bill will stop planning permissions from being timed if blocked by legal challenges.

Currently, housing developers can find themselves having to start the planning process all over again from the beginning if they find themselves tied up in the courts for too long. In a bid to accelerate house-building, the new amendment to the bill that is going through parliament will mean stalled schemes will not have to go back to square one.

The measure is one of a raft of amendments produced by the government to ‘get Britain building’.

Ministers will also get new powers to issue ‘holding directions’ to prevent applications being rejected by local councils while they consider using call-in powers to decide whether or not they should be approved. According to the government, some councils are dragging their feet, with nearly 900 major housing schemes blocked in the past year alone.   

Housing secretary Steve Reed said: “Britain’s potential has been shackled by governments unwilling to overhaul the stubborn planning system that has erected barriers to building at every turn. It is simply not true that nature has to lose for economic growth to succeed.

  “Sluggish planning has real world consequences. Every new house blocked deprives a family of a home. Every infrastructure project that gets delayed blocks someone from a much-needed job. This will now end.   

 “The changes we are making today will strengthen the seismic shift already underway through our landmark Bill. We will ‘Build, baby, build’ with 1.5 million new homes and communities that working people desperately want and need.”

Not everyone is impressed. Roger Mortlock, chief executive of countryside charity CPRE (formerly the Council for the Preservation of Rural England), said: “These eleventh hour amendments to the Planning & Infrastructure Bill represent a dangerous erosion of democracy. They are an astounding capitulation to the same big developers that have consistently failed to deliver the homes people need. 

“The housing secretary claims that sluggish planning has ‘real world consequences’. So too would the removal of vital legal safeguards. Blocking judges from halting approvals while legal challenges proceed would allow unlawful projects to cause irreversible damage to communities, wildlife and the wider environment.

“Giving ministers powers to override local council rejections further strips communities of their voice in decisions that affect their areas, as does restricting access to judicial review. 

“CPRE’s research shows there is enough brownfield land in England for more than 1.4 million new homes. It’s possible to build the affordable and sustainable homes people need while still protecting the countryside and nature. What’s required isn’t the removal of democratic safeguards, but a shake-up of our broken housing market and proper investment in a planning system that works for communities, not just big developers.”

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