Housing developers have always been an easy target for politicians and the stance taken by the LURA seems no different. The Act will introduce several obligations on developers including the requirement for commencement and completion notices, and the inclusion of a condition to provide development progress reports, putting greater onus on housebuilders to “build out faster”.
If the Local Planning Authority (LPA) are of the opinion that a development will not be completed within a reasonable period then they may serve a completion notice deadline, whereby after the specified date the planning permission will cease to have effect. This completion deadline must be at least 12 months from the date it is served. There are however provisions included within the act that allow for completion notices to be appealed whereby the appellant considers the development will be completed in a reasonable time period, the completion notice deadline is unreasonable or the notice was not served on the correct person(s).
This is intended to encourage developers to get building, delivering homes at a faster rate, and help keep communities up to date on development progress in their areas, as well as keep Council’s up to date on build out rates. These updates will then provide Council’s the opportunity to consider build out rates when approving planning applications and in cases where there has been a history of non-implementation, worryingly The Act provides Council’s the power to decline to determine applications on this basis.
As ever the devil will be in the detail and we will continue to monitor closely how this will be put into practice to ensure the negative implications and sanctions on the housing industry are fair and balanced.
