Sophie Smith speaks to Property Week on NPPF response and Nature Reservation Fund
In December, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published their response to the National Planning Policy Framework, developing their green-belt policies and further defining grey belt land. Adding to the discussion, they also published plans for a new Nature Reservation Fund, designed to help developers with their environmental mitigation costs.
A key takeaway is that the government has changed plans for a flat 50% affordable housing requirement on green belt land, instead having a variable premium ranging from 15% to 50%, on top of the targets set by local plans.
Sophie Smith, Associate on our Planning team, spoke to Property Week on how open to interpretation these requirements are now, and how this will affect identifying grey belt land.
“[The number of appeals will depend on] how local authorities seek to interpret and apply the new policy on a local application specific level”.
On the new Nature Reservation Fund, this could “iron out the delays in the development process”. With scheme environmental aspects often the cause of additional work and delays, the fund could possibly give “greater certainty to developers as to how these issues can be addressed and mitigated much earlier in the development process”.
Read the full article in Property Week here.
