Boris Johnson was particular in introducing new construction planning reforms in the United Kingdom in July. The first changes become valid from the beginning of August. This reform is a long-awaited and welcome change. Boosting infrastructural projects and relaxing rules for housing development will help to revive the construction sector.
The government says it plans to carry out an audit on publicly owned land to see if it can be managed more effectively or put to better use. The public property could be released for homebuilding, or if it contributes towards the environment and the UK’s net-zero goals, or provides growth opportunities for the local community. Current construction planning permission system will undergo drastic changes. Developers will not need to apply to demolish commercial buildings if they plan to rebuild them as residential properties. It is considered a quick way to repurpose empty buildings.
The lock has put off from the £400 million brownfield land fund. This cash will support the construction of about 24,000 homes in the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, north of Tyne and Tees Valley.
Developers will still have to adhere to present building standards and regulations. Faster conversion of existing commercial buildings on brownfield sites into residential ones will reduce demand to build on greenfield land.
£100 million is to go on road improvements. Schools will get 1 billion to get more schools. Hospital and healthcare developments may receive £1.5 billion, £12 billion planned for delivery of affordable homes. The latter will bring up the property ladder at least 180 thousand new households within eight years timeframe. As we wrote earlier, Britain requires more than 300 thousand homes every year.
Government package includes a pilot of the First Homes scheme. It will offer a 30 per cent discount for the first buyers that will be locked into the property and passed on to the next eligible buyer. The initial offering will include 1500 homes.
Semis can double the height. Freeholders will be allowed to add one or two storeys on top of existing blocks of flats. The new permitted development right could add a lot to the value of these buildings, according to the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership (LKP), an advisory group.
Under new reforms, owners of residential tower blocks will be allowed to extend their developments upwards. They will be allowed two more storeys without planning permission from the start of next month.
The regulations say the new homes must be flats and the total height of the extended building must not exceed 30m. Rooftop extensions can only be added to purpose-built, detached blocks of flats, built after July 1, 1948, and before March 5, 2018.
Extensions will be subject to a fast-track approval process, subject to neighbour consultation. New procedures will come into force as fast as from August 1. Infill spaces between homes are allowed to fill with narrow houses. Building infill properties between houses could deliver 10,000 new homes by 2025.
There will also be extra money for smaller developers, with £450 million added to the Home Building Fund to help them to deliver about 7,200 homes.
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