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The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA) reached royal assent on the 26 October 2023, paving the way for a new planning environment.
The Act is the biggest change in the legislative landscape in planning since perhaps the introduction of the NPPF in 2012.
This impacts many aspects of Planning and the development sector, and the Task Force would draw visitors’ attention to of our website to the key changes that effect Self-build and Custom Housing Building as a result of the Act.
Chapter 6 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (LURA) identifies some significant changes to the 2015 Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act - as amended by the 2016 Housing and Planning Act and the 2023 Levelling Up and Regeneration Act.
LURA amendments mean that the Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act (as amended) will now appear in statute once published. Currently the content of the Act still states the recommendations, as it has not been fully updated online:
123 Duty in relation to self-build and custom housebuilding
(1)In section 2A of the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 (duty to grant planning permissions etc)—
(a)in subsection (2)—
(i)omit “suitable”;
(ii)for “in respect of enough serviced plots” substitute “for the carrying out of self-build and custom housebuilding on enough serviced plots”;
(iii)for “arising in” substitute “in respect of”;
(b)after subsection (5) insert—
“(5A)Regulations may make provision specifying descriptions of planning permissions or permissions in principle that are, or are not, to be treated as development permission for the carrying out of self-build and custom housebuilding for the purposes of this section.”;
(c)in subsection (6), for paragraph (a) substitute—
“(a)the demand for self-build and custom housebuilding in an authority’s area in respect of a base period is the aggregate of—
(i)the demand for self-build and custom housebuilding arising in the authority’s area in the base period; and
(ii)any demand for self-build and custom housebuilding that arose in the authority’s area in an earlier base period and in relation to which—
(A)the time allowed for complying with the duty in subsection (2) expired during the base period in question, and
(B)the duty in subsection (2) has not been met;
(aa)the demand for self-build and custom housebuilding arising in an authority’s area in a base period is evidenced by the number of entries added during that period to the register under section 1 kept by the authority;”;
(d)omit subsection (6)(c);
(e)in subsection (9)(b), for “arising in” substitute “in respect of”.
The implications of these changes are far reaching, and ultimately will also lead in time to secondary legislation changes and the impending changes to the NPPF and NPPG. As such, when using the Task Force Guidance, please be mindful that these changes will have a knock on effect and we will need to up date the guidance to take account of the those changes, we cannot at this stage make changes to the guidance until all the changes become know.