1. Purpose of the bill
Speaking to the purpose of the bill, Lord Mann said:
Housing allocations are set nationally, requiring local authorities to allocate land for development to meet these targets and to do so in a deliverable way. At the same time neighbourhood development plans have been created and are working very successfully to give local communities control of the development process including localised housing allocation. This local control has increased the number of houses built. This bill gives the power to the local authority responsible for planning to establish their own overall local housing targets in cooperation with the community, without compromising existing neighbourhood development planning, shifting power from national government to locally elected representatives, but within the context of other national government planning objectives and priorities.
2. Bill provisions
The Local Authority (Housing Allocation) Bill [HL] contains one substantive clause. Clause 1 would amend section 19 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 concerning the preparation of local development documents.
Under section 19(1B) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, local planning authorities are required to identify the strategic priorities for the development and use of land in the authority’s area. This requirement was added to the 2004 act by section 8(1) of the Neighbourhood Planning Act 2017.
Clause 1(2) of the bill would add new subsection (1F) to section 19 of the 2004 act. This would require that, for the purposes of subsection (1B), local planning authorities would establish targets for local housing allocations in England in consultation with local communities. The timescales for these targets would be set by the secretary of state.
Clause 2 states that the territorial extent of the bill is England and Wales only. The bill applies to England only. It also states that the bill’s provisions would come into force on the day it is passed.
