Housing Minister Grant Shapps has announced that the new Localism Bill will extend a new Community Right to Build across England. Previously, this new right was to be restricted only to rural areas - but Mr Shapps has confirmed that communities across the country will also be able to use these powers. Any community organisation bringing forward new developments under this power will not need to make a normal application for planning permission, if it meets minimum criteria and has local support through a referendum. When housing minister Grant Shapps proposed the initiative in July, it called for a 90 per cent level of support. This was lowered in August to 75 per cent after the National Housing Federation said the previous threshold would ‘result in no schemes being brought to fruition’. A briefing issued ahead of the Localism Bill now says this will be 50 per cent. The new Community Right to Build will be introduced as part of wider Neighbourhood Planning reforms - details of which are included in the Localism Bill. Read more on the CLG website.
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