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National Planning Policy
Thank you for contacting me about planning policy.
While more than 1.1 million homes have been delivered since 2010, more must be done to meet the target of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. That is why I welcomed the recent publication of a revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework, providing a comprehensive approach for planners, developers, and councils to build more homes, more quickly, in the places people want to live.
This major overhaul to the Framework, the first in six years, includes a new housing delivery test, greater freedom for building on brownfield land, and a standardised method for assessing local housing needs. A consultation on the initial proposals was launched to give everyone the opportunity to feed in views on proposals for the future of planning.
These proposals build on other steps taken to reform planning, including a £25 million Planning Delivery Fund to help speed up planning decisions, and encouraging local authorities to publish brownfield registers which have so far revealed 26,000 hectares of developable land across 16,000 sites.
I am pleased that the final version of the new Framework, published in July, will come into force immediately for planning decisions and after a six month transition period for new local plans. I am confident that these reforms will help fix the broken housing market and restore the dream of home ownership for a new generation.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
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