INDUSTRY NEWS 5
Government pledges to “restore fairness and honesty” in housing
“swift action” to introduce legalisation to implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry Phase 2 report through changes to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005. Under the remaining proposals, plans for a lifetime deposit scheme were released, which would see deposits follow renters from property to property. Plans to abolish no-fault evictions have also been confirmed, meaning landlords would no longer be able to remove tenants from their homes at short notice and with no “good” reason. This will reportedly be matched with new powers to strengthen the rights of landlords to gain possession of their property through the courts when they have “clearly valid reason to do so.”
The Government also announced plans to launch its First Home scheme, set to make homes available at a discount for local first-time buyers. Councils will be able to use housing developers’ contribu- tions to discount homes by 30 per cent for people who cannot otherwise afford to buy in their area. The Affordable Homes Programme will reportedly still be renewed.
Plans for a “revolutionary new deal for renters” were announced as part of the Queen’s speech, intended to “restore fairness, honesty and transparency at the heart of the housing market.” Among proposals for renters, local first time buyers, and reforms to the leasehold market, the Government revealed some of its upcoming legislative plans for the housing sector. One such plan is to ensure any new
housing is accompanied by essential infrastructure, with a White Paper to be published on reforming the planning system to ensure it “works better” for the public and small builders.
In what it has stated to be the “biggest change to building safety laws for 40 years,” the Government will also action recommendations from the Hackitt review. These changes are intended to provide clearer accountability for, and stronger duties on, those responsible for the safety of high-rise buildings; “give residents a stronger voice in the system”; and strengthen enforcement and sanctions to deter non-compliance with the new regime in order to “hold the right people to account.”
As part of these changes, the Government has also pledged to take
Alongside these plans, it was revealed that new legislation is to be set in place to “bring an end to the unscrupulous practice of unnecessary leaseholds,” introducing laws to ban new houses being sold on a leasehold basis, and reducing ground rents for new leases to zero.
tory for every site – and currently every type of planning permission – to incentivise the enhancement of habitats onsite or locally. Although the proposals require a 10 per cent BNG, the Government has talked about introducing some exemp- tions for permitted developments and householder applications, as well as an exemption for certain brownfield and small sites. However, those exemptions will reportedly be included in the second- ary legislation that is not yet available. The Government has stated that BNG will not apply in the same way to nationally significant infrastructure projects, although other proposals for net gain are being explored. Long-term protection of habitats is
encouraged, says Ward Hadaway, as any works a developer proposes to undertake to increase biodiversity value “may only be taken into account if maintenance for a minimum of 30 years has been secured.” If 10 per cent BNG can’t be achieved by on-site improvements, there are opportu- nities for off-site improvements through financial contributions in a section 106 Agreement or the purchasing of ‘biodiver- sity credits.’ As is the current position, changes to
biodiversity will continue to be measured by The Defra Biodiversity Metric, which considers habitat type, condition and size of habitat, strategic significance, and connectivity, and is translated by the metric into a number of biodiversity units. Interpretation of the updated Biodiversity Metric is likely to require the involvement of a specialist ecologist. For most, the concept of BNG will not
Start preparing for Biodiversity Net Gain now, says legal planning team
Developers should start preparing now for the Government’s proposed ‘Green Brexit,’ says legal firm Ward Hadaway’s planning team, after the Conservative’s decisive win last month. Although the Environment Bill is still a
while off becoming law, the firm believes that developers up and down the country should already be thinking about the implications the proposed mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) of 10 per cent will have on future developments. This advice follows the Government’s announcement it will make BNG manda-
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
be new, however its application has generally been confined to sites with high biodiversity value. According to Ward Hadaway, implications for developers are more so for those sites with marginal viability, while the impact for landowners may be greater as they are likely to receive a diminished land value due to increased planning/section 106 costs. There are also resource implications for
local planning authorities as Section 88 and schedule 15 of the draft Bill states that development “may not begin” unless the developer has submitted a biodiversity gain plan and the local planning authority has approved the plan.
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