Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced Budget 2020 in March and it has a lot about the Town and Country Planning Regime in the UK. These proposals are wide ranging and have the potential to change the planning landscape in significant ways for the forseeable future. There are 12 key themes and this is the second set of 6 themes.
The first set of six planning related themes is published here.
Theme 7 – Single Housing Infrastructure Fund
The Government said it would launch a new long-term Single Housing Infrastructure Fund” to help deliver infrastructure in new developments before people move into the housing. The fund would be a “new version” of the Housing Infrastructure Fund that “will be larger and longer-term than its predecessor”. The purpose of this fund is to ensure infrastructure for new developments is provided before any housing is occupied. If implemented properly, this should be welcome for many in the Planning industry.
Robert Jenrick said in January 2020 that “The role in this for central government is ensuring that infrastructure flows first—that was one of our manifesto commitments—so that GP surgeries, roads and schools flow at an appropriate time. We are going to take that forward”
Theme 8 – Planning and Creating Homes on Brownfield Sites
The Government is making available a £400 million fund to boost housing on brownfield land. The Budget documents said the fund was aimed at “pro-development councils and ambitious mayoral combined authorities”. It said the government would shortly invite bids that “are ambitious and represent a significant increase in housing supply on brownfield land”.
Theme 9 – National Infrastructure Strategy
The National Infrastructure Strategy is the response of the Government to the National Infrastructure Commission’s first Assessment. The Government says it will publish the strategy along with this Spring budget.
In the NIC assessment published in 2019, it called on City leaders and metro mayors to develop and implement “integrated strategies for transport, employment and housing” and be granted greater planning decision-making powers by 2021″. It also recommended that councils be allowed greater powers to capture any uplift in land value arising from planning and infrastructure decisions.
Theme 10 – Directly Elected Mayor for West Yorkshire Combined Authority
Chancellor Rishi Sunak also announced that a devolution deal had been struck with the city-region of West Yorkshire. The Budget documents said that the deal would provide £1.1 billion of investment for the area over 30 years, as well as devolving significant new decision-making powers on transport and skills as well as planning. The government also said it would publish an English devolution white paper in the summer, setting out how it intends to meet its ambition for full devolution across England
Theme 11 – Second Road Investment Strategy
The Budget document referred to the Road Investment Strategy RIS2 as taking forward investment of £27 billion in strategic roads and motorways. Some of the specific schemes include schemes dualling of the A66 Trans-Pennine and upgrading the A46 Newark bypass to address congestion. Also includes building the Lower Thames Crossing to increase road capacity across the Thames east of London by 90%. This investment will aid the planning of new homes in the areas where the investment is being made.
Theme 12 – Transport Networks of City Regions
The Budget documents said funding would be delivered through five-year transport settlements agreed with central government and based on plans put forward by mayors. The government said it would open discussions with Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and West Midlands “in the coming months”. The new West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Sheffield City Region, Tyne and Wear, West of England and Tees Valley will also receive settlements, “subject to putting in place appropriate governance to agree and deliver funding, including an elected mayor for their city regions and transport networks”.
I must admit that last part concerns me because here in Cambridgeshire, the Government forced a Mayor on us to do just this. But as many in the area know, that plan has not worked at all well for our region.
Conclusion
Budget 2020 includes quite a number of ambitious planning related projects. It remains to be seen how the Government intends to make these ideas all work.
What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts with us.