In the last six years, there has been a huge increase in house building in the UK. The effects and results of this increase can be seen throughout the country, with many villages and towns, especially in rural areas, undergoing expansion that a decade ago would have been unthinkable. As demand continues to increase for new homes and more people seek to escape the endless loop of renting, it’s essential that the house building and planning process is both fit for purpose and streamlined to its optimum efficiency.
New-build has hit an eight-year high. In an effort to sustain and grow the current housing boom, the Housing and Planning Act 2016 aims to consolidate the UK’s robust approach to getting houses built as fast as possible. Key changes that will be implemented as a result of the 2016 Act have been somewhat overshadowed by recent political events, uncertainty and turmoil, as Westminster wrestles with Brexit and its fallout. But the act is essential in contributing its part in continuing this thriving time for British building. In May, the UK’s Housing and Planning Act became law. The far-reaching bill was hotly debated in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Its aim is to ensure one million homes are built in the UK by 2020. The bill deals with several aspects of housing and planning, including house building, estate agents, rent charges, planning and compulsory purchases.
A helping hand for first-time buyers
Many of the changes are minor amendments to legislation, additions to clauses, redefinitions and clarifications, but there are some more significant changes introduced in the act too. One of the most eye-catching pledges made in the bill is to build 200,000 starter homes. These will be available to first-time buyers aged between 23 and 40, at a price 20% below their market value, encouraging first-time buyers and renters to be able to get on the property ladder and own a home of their own.
With the huge increase in planning applications, new technologies such as iApply help to keep the process running with efficiency. iApply is the UK’s first combined online planning and building control submissions service. Developed by Idox, iApply has been created to bring greater flexibility, transparency and interactivity to the planning and building control submissions process. Planning and Building Control will be affected by the new legislation, particularly in areas such as the granting of ‘permission in principle’. As an amendment to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the act introduces legislation, which is designed to allow automatic consent for potential housing sites identified in Local Plans and brownfield registers, subject to discussion of the proposals. This will help local planning authorities to ‘get the ball rolling’ and begin the process of planning permissions more swiftly.
Improving efficiency
The planning and housing reforms are a timely tie-in with the ethos of iApply, which aims to further facilitate the planning and building control process. iApply’s goal is to make the interaction between local authorities’ planning and building control procedures and those developing and building future projects more fluid and flexible. As more local authorities begin to use iApply, the more efficient the planning and building control processes will become.
Lorenzo Pandolfi is a young planning professional based in London, who has found that iApply provides invaluable information during the early stages of planning too. He explained: “To assess the redevelopment potential of a site, the knowledge of planning history is extremely important, so it is key to see what has been done before, what has worked well and received planning consent. Every project is different but it is useful to be able to understand what has been successful in an area in the past, as this can help inform future work. iApply provides an easy, searchable platform of all projects at different stages. Using key words I am able to search for a specific type of development, in an identified area, in a specified period. This makes it so much easier to make up-to-date comparisons and draw realistic conclusions.”
For further information on iApply, please visit www.iapply.co.uk or watch the introductory video highlighting just some of the major advantages of investing in the service https://iapply.co.uk/#why
