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Housing and Planning Act 2016

Contents

Overview of the Act

  1. The Act puts in place measures to support the delivery of the Government's commitments as published in the Conservative Party manifesto and the productivity plan Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation. Through this Act, the Government aims to take forward proposals to build more homes that people can afford, give more people the chance to own their own home, and to improve the way housing is managed.
  2. This Act implements reforms that aim to remove any unnecessary obstacles in the planning system to the delivery of new homes.
  3. The Act is made up of nine parts. A summary of these parts and their contents is provided below.
    • Part 1: New homes in England
      • Starter homes – provides a statutory framework for the delivery of starter homes.
      • Self-build and custom housebuilding – requires local authorities to meet demand for custom-built and self-built homes by granting permissions for suitable sites.
    • Part 2: Rogue landlords and property agents in England
      • Private rented sector – provides greater powers for local authorities to identify and tackle rogue landlords and property agents.
    • Part 3: Recovering abandoned premises in England
      • Private rented sector – reforms abandonment to more effectively recycle rented property.
    • Part 4: Social housing in England
      • Implementing the Right to Buy on a voluntary basis – enables the Secretary of State to pay for the cost of Right to Buy discounts for housing association tenants and to set criteria for home ownership against which private registered providers may be monitored.
      • Vacant higher value local authority housing – requires local authorities to manage their housing assets more efficiently, with the most valuable vacant properties sold to fund an increase in home ownership and overall housing supply.
      • Rents for high income social tenants – requires local authority tenants in social housing on higher incomes (over £40,000 in London and over £31,000 outside London) to pay a proportionate level of rent. The policy is voluntary for housing associations to operate.
      • Reducing regulation of social housing – reduces the regulatory requirements for private registered providers of social housing.
      • Insolvency of registered providers of social housing– allows the Secretary of State or the regulator of social housing with the agreement of the Secretary of State to apply to the Court to appoint a special administrator for private registered providers of social housing that are at risk of entering insolvency proceedings.
      • Secure tenancies etc. – requires local authority landlords to grant new tenants a fixed term tenancy, of between 2 and 10 years generally but up to 19 years for tenants with children and restricting the rights of family members to succeed to local authority tenancies.
    • Part 5: Housing, estate agents and rentcharges: other changes
      • Electrical safety standards - enables the Secretary of State to make regulations to require private sector landlords to meet electrical safety standards.
      • Accommodation needs in England - amends the legislation governing the assessment of housing and accommodation needs of the community, and aims to ensure that the needs of all members of the community are assessed.
      • Housing regulation in England - a more stringent ‘fit and proper’ person test for landlords letting out licensed properties, such as Houses in Multiple Occupation, to help ensure that they have the appropriate skills to manage such properties and do not pose a risk to the health and safety of their tenants; allows financial penalties to be imposed as an alternative to prosecution for certain offences; and increases the fine for overcrowding to an unlimited level.
      • Housing information in England - requires Tenancy Deposit Scheme data to be shared with local authorities; and gives the secretary of a tenants’ association a right to obtain from the landlord contact information for other leaseholders in a shared block provided that leaseholders have individually consented to their information being made available in this way.
      • Administration charges - amends the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 to give courts and tribunals a discretionary power to restrict the ability of a landlord to recover from the leaseholder as an administrative charge the landlord's costs of taking part in legal proceedings.
      • Enforcement of estate agent legislation - amends the Estate Agents Act 1979 to allow the Secretary of State to appoint the lead enforcement authority.
      • Client money protection schemes for property agents - enables the Secretary of State to make regulations to require property agents to join a Client Money Protection scheme.
      • Enfranchisement and extension of long leaseholds – enables the manner in which the valuation of minor intermediate leasehold interests in leasehold enfranchisement and lease extension cases is calculated to be changed by regulations.
      • Rentcharges - allows the method used for calculating the amount needed to redeem a rentcharge to be amended by secondary legislation.
    • Part 6: Planning in England
      • Neighbourhood planning - simplifies and speeds up the neighbourhood planning process to support communities that seek to meet local housing and other development needs through neighbourhood planning.
      • Local planning - gives the Secretary of State more flexible powers to intervene if Local Plans are not effectively delivered.
      • Planning in Greater London - enables the Secretary of State to devolve further powers to the Mayor of London.
      • Permission in principle and local registers of land - enables the Secretary of State to require local authorities to hold a register of various types of land, with the intention of creating a register of brownfield land to facilitate unlocking land to build new homes; and enables "permission in principle" to be given to suitable housing-led sites identified in the brownfield register and in local and neighbourhood plans, and provides an opportunity for applicants to obtain permission in principle for small sites.
      • Planning permission etc - amends the power which enables conditions to be attached to development orders for building operations so that they are consistent with those for change of use; extends the planning performance regime to apply to applications which are not major applications (e.g. smaller applications); puts information about the financial benefits of proposals for development and information about neighbourhood development plans before local authority planning committees; enables local authorities to request alterations to the planning system; and simplifies the Parliamentary process for making changes to planning application fees that affect some authorities but not others.
      • Planning obligations - allows the Secretary of State to place restrictions or conditions on the enforceability of planning obligations relating to the provision of affordable housing and provides for the Secretary of State to appoint a person to help resolve outstanding planning obligations issues within set timeframes.
      • Nationally significant infrastructure projects – allows developers who wish to bring forward applications for housing relating to a major infrastructure project to apply for consent under the nationally significant infrastructure planning regime.
      • Powers for piloting alternative provision of processing service - allows the Secretary of State to introduce, by regulations, pilot schemes to test the benefits of introducing competition in the processing (but not determination) of applications for planning permission.
      • Review of minimum energy performance requirements – requires a review of minimum energy performance standards for new dwellings.
      • Urban development corporations and new towns – modernising and speeding up the process for creating Urban and New Town Development Areas and Corporations.
      • Sustainable drainage – requires a review of elements of the planning system that relate to sustainable drainage.
    • Part 7: Compulsory purchase etc
      • Takes steps to improve the compulsory purchase regime, and make it clearer, fairer and faster.
    • Part 8: Public Authority land
      • Engagement in relation to disposal of land – creates a duty on Ministers of the Crown to engage with local authorities and relevant public authorities when preparing to dispose of land.
      • Duty to report on surplus land – requires relevant public authorities to prepare reports specifying land which they have retained as surplus for longer than two years; or, in the case of property which is wholly or mainly residential property, longer than six months. In each instance, the report must set out the body’s reasons for retaining the surplus land.
      • Power to direct bodies to dispose of land – builds on existing powers for the Secretary of State to direct bodies to dispose of land. Adds further circumstances under which this power may be exercised.
      • Reports on efficiency and sustainability of local government estate – creates a new duty on local authorities to prepare an annual report on the efficiency and sustainability of buildings within their estate, including progress towards reducing the size of the estate and efficiency ratings of individual buildings.
      • Reports on efficiency and sustainability of military estate – creates a new duty on the Minister for Cabinet Office to prepare an annual report on the efficiency and sustainability of buildings within the military estate, including progress towards reducing the size of the estate and efficiency ratings of individual buildings.
    • Part 9: General

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