Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023: progress on implementing build out measures
The government introduced a number of measures through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 to incentivise the prompt build-out of housing sites. This update outlines recent progress in the implementation of these measures and next steps.
Applies to England
The government wants to see homes built faster and to higher standards. We expect house builders to do their part by submitting proposals for high quality developments, meeting local housing needs and preferences, and building them out as quickly as possible once permission is granted.
We have introduced a number of measures through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (the Act) to incentivise the prompt build-out of housing sites and to support councils in acting against those who fail to meet these commitments. They are:
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Housing developers will be required to notify formally local planning authorities when they commence development (via development commencement notices) and then report annually to them on their actual housing delivery (via development progress reports). Both measures will help local planning authorities to identify where sites are coming forward too slowly and to decide whether to sanction a developer for failure to build out their schemes promptly.
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We are modernising and streamlining existing powers for local planning authorities to serve completion notices – a tool that provides for the removal of planning permission for any unfinished parts of a development after a period specified in the notice lapses.
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We are introducing a new power that will allow local planning authorities to decline to determine applications made by developers who fail to build out at a reasonable rate where there have been earlier permissions granted on any land in the authority’s area.
Section 255(3)(a) of the Act relating to sections 112 (completion notices), 113 (power to decline to determine applications) and 114 (development progress reports), conferred powers on the Secretary of State to make regulations for the purposes of these sections two months after the day the Act was passed (that is from 26 December 2023). On 31 March 2024, as a further technical step towards implementation, we partly commenced the development commencement notice provisions under section 111 of the Act, again to enable the Secretary of State to make regulations in this area. Prior to fully commencing all four measures, there will be a public consultation to seek views on the practical implementation of them, and the preparation of the necessary regulations and commencement of the rest of the provisions will then follow.
To further strengthen our build out measures, we also consulted on three further measures (via changes to national planning policy) as part of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to national planning policy consultation (December 2022 to March 2023). These included:
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publishing data on developers of sites over a certain size in cases where they fail to build out according to their commitments
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requiring developers to explain how they propose to increase the diversity of housing tenures to maximise a scheme’s absorption rate
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highlighting in the National Planning Policy Framework that delivery rate can be a material consideration in planning applications
The government response to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill: reforms to the national planning policy consultation (published 19 December 2023) confirmed that the government proposes to take forward these changes, after a full consultation on them and related issues of build-out in due course.
Finally, we will also publish a separate consultation seeking views on a build out financial penalty to incentivise developers to build out homes more quickly in due course.