Budget Special News
Closed shop: Osborne's planning law reform aims to improve deprived areas by making it easier to transform empty shops into housing developments Local government planning
Councils: planning rules must stay local
BY VIVIENNE RUSSELL
Decisions about relaxing planning restrictions should be left in the hands of councils not Whitehall, local government leaders have said.
The Budget proposed a signifi cant overhaul of the planning regime including: a faster and more streamlined application process; a presumption in favour of sustainable development; and a 12-month guarantee for the processing of all planning applications. Ministers also intend to consult on making it easier for developers to convert commercial property into residential.
But the Local Government Association fears this proposal could replace a ‘one- size-fi ts-all’ system with a similar one. Gary Porter, chair of the LGA’s environment and housing board, said: ‘Removing the need for developers to obtain permission for converting empty shops into new housing may help in some areas, but it should be down to councils and residents to decide.’
He added that any planning changes should not ‘fl y in the face of localism’. Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said the planning reforms would put the UK back on a ‘strong and sustainable economic footing’.
8 PublicFinance APRIL 2011
He said: ‘We are unblocking the costly planning system, regenerating redundant sites and putting the brakes on years of Whitehall micro-management.’ National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr backed the call for planning bodies to prioritise growth and create jobs, but said that for it to work ‘ministers must ensure the presumption in favour of sustainable development is included in the Localism Bill’. He added: ‘Councils must continue to maximise the affordable housing they secure through planning gain deals.’
Tax avoidance
Evasion curb is too cautious, says ARC
BY VIVIENNE RUSSELL
The chancellor’s plan to curb tax evasion and avoidance was too ‘cautious and conservative’, professionals have said. George Osborne said his March 23 Budget did more to clamp down on tax avoidance than any other Budget of recent years.
A total of £14bn was lost through tax avoidance and evasion in 2008, according to Revenue & Customs fi gures cited by Osborne. A new Treasury paper, Tackling tax avoidance, sets out measures the government will take to recoup some of
these losses. These include tightening capital gains rules for companies and ending the practice of disguised remuneration, through which highly paid employees are given tax-free lifetime loans that are never repaid.
The chancellor said the changes would bring in an additional £4bn over the life of the Parliament. Speaking to Public Finance after the Budget, Graham Black, president of the Association of Revenue & Customs, which represents senior R&C staff, said the Budget was a missed opportunity. ‘We welcome a number of the specifi c measures, but they [ministers] have been too cautious and conservative in their ambitions on tax evasion and avoidance. We think they could have done more.’ He added that cuts to R&C made it harder to close the tax gap.
The ARC has called for investment of £260m in R&C, which it estimates would bring in £6bn in lost revenue.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN TOO
CONSERVATIVE ON TAX EVASION AND
President of the Association of Revenue and Customs
AVOIDANCE GRAHAM BLACK
Photos: Alamy
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