Financial incentives for councils that support house-building will be introduced as a matter of priority, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has promised. The move is intended to improve housing growth following the abolition of centrally-imposed regional targets. Mr Pickles officially scrapped the "Soviet" targets as he laid an order in Parliament revoking regional spatial strategies which, he said, had failed to increase house-building. Mr Pickles said that the Government would introduce "powerful new incentives" for communities to encourage support for the construction of new homes. Local people would be given "direct rewards from the proceeds of growth to improve their local area", he said. In a statement to MPs, he said: "Because we are committed to housing growth, introducing these incentives will be a priority and we aim to do so early in the spending review period”. And in a speech to the Local Government Association Conference, he said, “Councils will now be free to protect Green Belt surrounding 30 towns across the country. The targets system forced them to redraw Green Belt boundaries and designate large areas of countryside for new development. Communities will now have the power to prevent encroachment on the Green Belt and decide themselves where they want to build.” Towns and areas – including Nottingham - that were planning to make Green Belt cuts and reviews because of Whitehall-imposed targets will now be able to make their own decisions where new development is built. Read the full text of Mr. Pickles’ speech to the LGA Conference at the CLG website.
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