DCLG to cut time for considering application for neighbourhood area
The Government is to cut the number of weeks that councils have to consider a community’s application to create a neighbourhood area to just 13.
The Department for Communities and Local Government said this timeframe would also be reduced to eight weeks where the neighbourhood area follows a parish boundary.
However, where applications cover an area straddling more than one planning authority the period for consideration is to be extended to 20 weeks.
Agreeing an area for a neighbourhood plan to cover currently takes an average of 19 weeks, according to the DCLG.
The Department said it would also take steps to clarify the information that must be submitted with a neighbourhood plan.
“This will ensure independent examiners have sufficient information to assess the plan’s environmental effect,” it said.
The DCLG reported that more than 160 communities had now been consulted on draft neighbourhood plans. The number of plans in force is 31.
Housing Minister Brandon Lewis claimed the changes would make it quicker and easier for communities to create their own neighbourhood plan.
He said: “We’re seeing a genuine neighbourhood planning movement with communities in almost two-thirds of local authorities already using these powers to shape what gets built where in their local area….
“Now I want to go further and see more communities making the most of the powers we’ve put in their hands. [These] measures will speed up the process, making it quicker and easier to get a neighbourhood plan together so that the views of local people are written clearly in black and white for developers and councils to see, and ensure that future development in those areas delivers the homes communities themselves want to see.”
The minister added that he wanted to “look at what more can be done to speed up the neighbourhood planning process through further consultation with communities”.
The proposals are contained in the DCLG’s Neighbourhood planning: government response to consultation.
