Ministers to make it easier for villages to establish neighbourhood plans

The Government is to make it easier for villages to establish neighbourhood plans and allocate land for new homes, ministers have announced.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Elizabeth Truss, said this would include the use of rural exception sites to deliver ‘Starter Homes’.

A ten-point plan aimed at boosting rural productivity said: “Through the right combination of measures, the government wants to ensure that any village in England has the freedom to expand in an incremental way, subject to local agreement.”

Other proposals in the plan include:

• In the current bidding round for Enterprise Zones, which closes on 18 September, preference will be given to proposals involving smaller towns, districts and rural areas;
• A government review will be undertaken of planning and regulatory constraints facing rural businesses and measures that can be taken to address them by 2016;
• A fast-track planning certificate process will be introduced for establishing the principle of development for minor development proposals;
• Encouragement will be given to further proposals from local areas for devolution of powers “in return for strong and accountable local governance”;
• Permitted development rights will be extended to taller mobile masts subject to conclusions from the Call for Evidence which closes on 21 August 2015;
• There will be fairer funding for schools, including those in rural areas. “It will turn inadequate schools into academies and focus efforts to support school improvement in underperforming rural areas.”

The document, Towards a one nation economy: A 10-point plan for boosting productivity in rural areas, can be viewed here.