Despite the fact that there are already national planning policies in the UK that limit where new houses can be built, most local councils have their own restrictions that limit new homes even more.
But local authorities can only do this if they can show that they are giving planning permission for enough homes to tackle the persistent housing shortage we still face.
It was recently announced that 51 local councils in the UK are not meeting their housing targets at an unacceptable level, meaning that their own extra-restrictive local planning policies are no longer valid. In these areas the more generous national policies are now the ones that any new planning applications will be judged against.
This change means that now is a good time to develop and submit a planning application for a new home, especially if you live in one of these affected local council areas:
Arun Ashfield Barking and Dagenham Basildon Bournemouth Bradford Brentwood Bristol, City of Bromsgrove Broxbourne Bury Calderdale Canterbury Castle Point Eastbourne Elmbridge Enfield Epping Forest Epsom and Ewell Fareham Gravesham Hastings Havant Havering Isle of Wight Kensington and Chelsea Medway Mole Valley North Dorset North Hertfordshire Portsmouth Rossendale Rother Sandwell Sevenoaks Slough South Tyneside Southend-on-Sea Spelthorne St Albans Tandridge Three Rivers Thurrock Tonbridge and Malling Walsall Warrington Watford Welwyn Hatfield Windsor and Maidenhead Worthing York.
Local councils do not like having their power taken away, so they will all be working hard to meet their targets again so they can re-impose their own stricter policies. This means that the current relaxation in rules in these areas will not last forever - this window of opportunity will come to an end, so if you are thinking about planning consent it's better to act now rather than wait.
The UK government is in the process of introducing a whole new system for dealing with planning applications. This new system could make it more difficult to get consent in many other areas in the future. So no matter where you live in the UK, it's better to find out what the situation is for you sooner rather than later. If you need advice about whether, when or how to get planning consent for your project, you can contact simon@planix.uk or phone 0845 170 8050 or 07801 356 840 for some free initial advice.