High Street Takeaways To Be Converted Into Housing Without Planning Permission

High street takeaway restaurants will be allowed to be converted into residential properties without planning permission under new government regeneration plans. Jake Berry MP, the high streets minister, said he wants to make town centres “flexible to change” and hopes to remove delays to redevelopment often imposed by local councils. Berry’s plans would mean fast food premises would be in the same position as office buildings and warehouses, which can be turned into homes without council consent. Read more on the inews website.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/high-street-takeaways-turned-into-housing-no-planning-permission/

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Jake Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government which local authorities have refused his Department's offer to help promote the Right to Buy.

Mr Prisk: After the important measures announced at Budget, I wrote to all stock owning local authorities, offering support to inform tenants of their Right to Buy. This includes delivering Right to Buy tenant roadshows in partnership with them in the local area.  To date, Right to Buy events have been held in Hammersmith and Fulham, Wandsworth, Croydon, Basildon, Milton Keynes, Bournemouth, Doncaster and Swindon.

Others, following initial contact, such as Brighton and Hove, Cannock Chase, Crawley, Enfield, Harlow, Havering, Kingston upon Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Norwich, Sheffield, Southampton, Southwark and Wigan, have declined to organise such events. I would urge them, together with like minded authorities to rethink and ensure that their tenants are well informed. Should they change their minds, we stand ready to help organise.

Tory MP Calls for Council Tax Charge on Undeveloped Land

A Conservative MP has recommended that developers should be penalised with council tax charges for failing to develop ground that has been granted planning permission.   In a report submitted to the Government, Jake Berry calls attention to the 250,000 homes with planning permission that developers are currently land banking.  Mr Berry believes that developers could be incentivised to build if local authorities were to charge council tax on vacant plots.  Many developers are currently stalling on building work as they wait for values to rise, and simply renew permissions on vacant sites every five years.  Read more on 24dash.

MP Calls for Council Tax Charge on Undeveloped Land

A Conservative MP has recommended that developers should be penalised with council tax charges for failing to develop ground that has been granted planning permission.  In a report submitted to the Government, Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale & Darwen, calls attention to the 250,000 homes with planning permission that developers are currently land banking.  Mr Berry, who has been the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the former housing minister Grant Shapps since 2010, believes that developers could be incentivised to build if local authorities were to charge council tax on vacant plots.  Many developers are currently stalling on building work as they wait for values to rise, and simply renew permissions on vacant sites every five years.  Read more on 24dash.