Industry welcomes Localism Bill Assent
By Paul Norman - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 8:01
The property industry has welcomed news that the Localism Bill has become an Act of Parliament after being granted royal assent by the Queen, while calling for further measures to back development.
The Act aims to give local neighbourhoods more say over where development goes as well as giving local authorities greater decision-making powers and the opportunity to take advantage of a package of incentives from government aimed at rewarding authorities and local communities who welcome development in their area.
It includes the official abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies and the creation of neighbourhood plans.
Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, welcomed the Bill: “We welcome the government’s recognition of the need for localism to support sustainable economic growth and have been pleased to work closely with the government in developing the concept of business neighbourhoods in areas that are mainly commercial in character.
“We look forward to the government now realising the full potential of localism by pressing ahead with other measures that can empower local communities such as greater local retention of rate revenues and tax increment financing.”
Bob Robinson, senior partner at national planning consultancy DPP, welcomed the Bill but said there remained “misplaced expectation” over the amount of influence local communities would be given by the Bill.
“The Coalition Government must be congratulated on steering through this legislation within the timescale they set themselves. This bodes well in ensuring that initial provisions come into play next spring. However, much of the detail of this act remains left to secondary legislation, which will keep legislators busy over Christmas and New Year.
“I’d suggest there is still considerable misplaced expectation on the part of local communities over the degree of influence they perceive the new act will give them over development in their local area, which is not in practice supported by the legislation. This, combined with the issues that have been raised around the NPPF suggest there may be a danger of this Act becoming a bit of an ‘own goal’ by the coalition government in terms of public perception and approval of the government’s policies. In truth, the Localism Bill will give local people some control over the location of development but little over ‘what’ or ‘how much’ is built – this will already have been determined in Local Development Plans.
“I also suspect that many local Councillors and indeed developers will struggle with the Predetermination provisions in this new Bill. There will be a need for training on this issue if further legal challenges are to be avoided. We await to see what further detail emerges from the secondary legislation.”