The government publishes its response to the consultation relating to the General Regulations 1992 …

[NOTE: For the (previously published) legislation relating to this consultation, please view this post.]

The government has published the following response to the consultation relating to the General Regulations 1992 within the "Fixing our broken housing market - White Paper" (which ran for 12 weeks from 07/02/2017 until 02/05/2017):

  • February 2018: Local authority development - effect of planning permission - Government response to consultation (pdf) (link).

Notes:

  • The "Introduction" at the start of the above response document includes the following information:
    - "The Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992 enable local planning authorities to determine their own development proposals on land in which they have an interest. The Regulations stipulate that where a local planning authority grants permission for its own development, the resulting permission is ‘personal’ to the authority (and any joint applicant) and cannot be implemented by any other body, including future owners of the land.".
    - "This constraint has previously been removed in unitary authorities (including London Boroughs and metropolitan councils) and Urban Development Corporations. Such bodies can therefore dispose of land with the benefit of planning permission they have granted themselves. This gives them the flexibility to proactively promote development of their land holdings by selling on ‘development-ready’ land, reducing risk for developers - including small-scale and custom builders.".
    - "However, the constraint on the effect of planning permission still applies in two-tier authorities. A developer purchasing land from a county or district council would need to re-apply for planning permission in order to carry out the development previously consented by the authority. This adds time, expense and risk. It limits delivery options for local authorities in two-tier areas which are seeking to take a proactive role in accelerating development on their own land.".
    - "The Government considers that there is no good reason for this discrepancy between authorities. Therefore, Question 5 of the Housing White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, sought views on amending regulations so that all local authorities can dispose of their land with the benefit of planning permission which they have granted themselves.".
    - "A total of 712 responses were received from a wide cross-section of respondents including local authorities, local councils, individuals, developers, neighbourhood forums, industry representative bodies, professionals, professional institutions and associations and voluntary/charitable/community/research organisations.".
    - "This document provides a summary of the responses and sets out the Government’s response.".

Other sources of information:

  • February 2017: Fixing our broken housing market - White Paper (pdf) (link).