Councils click into the future of planning
In town halls across the country, planning officers are racing to update their Local Plans — but this time, the process looks very different.
Call for caution over land value capture reform
24/04/2025 Experts have urged against wholesale reform of developer contributions, despite the flaws within the current system. |
Council to explore ‘more aggressive’ strategy on empty property
09/07/2024 Hartlepool Borough Council will consider taking a ‘more aggressive’ approach to tackling derelict buildings and land in the area. |
Council buys two sites for £19.5m regen scheme
17/06/2024 Dorset Council has bought two parcels of brownfield land as part of its plans to regenerate Weymouth’s waterfront economy. |
Council loses £600k buying back land it sold ‘wrongly’
02/05/2024 Shrewsbury Town Council has spent £1.34m buying back land it had ‘wrongly’ deemed ‘surplus to requirements’. |
The separation of planning and landowning powers
02/01/2024 Gemma Duncan and William Murrin, Sharpe Pritchard, discuss planning and landowning powers and the implications of a recent High Court judgement. |
Councils fear parks services will be ‘seriously affected’ by cuts
19/04/2023 Many councils are expecting cuts in their budgets for parks despite growing numbers of people using them, according to a new survey. |
Grant councils power to fight ‘exploitative lets’, think tank says
23/02/2023 Councils should be given more powers to set the rules about who can buy properties as one measure to tackle ‘exploitative lets’, think tank says. |
Warrington tops list of areas with most contaminated land
07/02/2023 Warrington has topped a list of the 10 council areas with the most contaminated land, new research reveals. |
Councils reducing allotment sizes as demand rises
26/09/2022 Two-thirds of local authorities have reduced the size of their allotments as more people apply for a plot of land. |
Council adopts land transfer policy to ‘kick-start a grassroots revolution’
24/06/2022 Liverpool council is set to launch a radical new scheme that will make council land available to voluntary groups in order to encourage local regeneration. |
First Welsh council joins digital Local Land Charges register
19/05/2022 Swansea has become the first Welsh local authority to move its local land charges to a digital register. |
Budget 2021: £24bn multi-year housing settlement
27/10/2021 The chancellor has today announced £11.5bn to build up to 180,000 new affordable homes, calling it the largest cash injection in more than a decade. |
The Brownfield Land Release Fund
21/10/2021 To what extent does this early initiative of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities deliver on the ‘levelling up’ agenda? Lawrence Turner reports. |
Shortage of land holding back new homes, small builders warn
20/10/2021 A lack of land is the main barrier preventing more homes from being built, small builders have warned in a new survey. |
Homes England launches £20bn dynamic purchasing system
07/09/2021 Councils and housing associations will find it easier to build houses thanks to reforms in the way Homes England procures housebuilders and disposes of land. |
Councils to set priorities for First Homes scheme
04/06/2021 Councils will be able to set a ‘local connection test’ to give priority to people such as key workers. |
Funding boost to unlock surplus land for housing
10/09/2020 The Government has announced a £30m fund to help release surplus public sector land for new housing. |
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Reforms to fast-track local plans
06/08/2020 Councils will face sanctions unless they draw-up local plans within 30 months under government proposals to overhaul the planning system. |
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MPs call for 90,000 new social homes every year
27/07/2020 An extra £10bn in grant funding is required to deliver the number of social homes needed to meet demand, MPs have said today. |
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Selling off government car parks could deliver 110,000 new homes, study finds
15/07/2020 Public sector owned car parks have the potential to deliver more than 110,000 new homes while maintaining parking services, a new study has revealed. |
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Selling public land has created ‘minuscule’ amount of affordable housing, think tank says
18/02/2020 The Government has sold enough public land for developers to build 131,000 homes, but only 2.6% of those homes will be for social rent, think tank reveals. |
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Whitehall ‘failing’ to meet target for land sales
24/07/2019 MPs have accused the Government of failing to meet its target for selling land to make way for new homes. |
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Councils build ‘highest number’ of houses since 1990
25/06/2019 Over 13,000 new houses were delivered by local authorities last year, town planners have calculated – the highest number since 1990. |
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Labour considers abolishing council tax for renters
04/06/2019 Labour Party is considering proposals to replace council tax with a ‘progressive property tax’, which would be payable by property owners rather than tenants. |
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Court orders new age travellers to leave ski park
06/03/2019 New age travellers living near an abandoned ski park in Sheffield have been ordered to leave to make way for a multi-million pound extreme sports site. |
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Council spent £4m clearing illegal traveller site
16/10/2018 The local authority responsible for removing the illegal Dale Farm traveller encampment is seeking to recover the over £4m of costs incurred by the action. |
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Brokenshire unveils £1.9bn to overcome building barriers
17/09/2018 The Government has announced nearly £2bn investment to help unlock development and overcome barriers to building new homes. |
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Councils should benefit from land value ‘uplift’, MPs say
13/09/2018 Increases in land value that result from policy decisions should be shared with councils and should not just go into the pockets of developers, MPs say. |
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Liverpool transfers land charges data to ‘national register’
03/09/2018 Liverpool City Council has become the second local authority to migrate its local land charges data to a new national register. |
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Freeze price of land to deliver affordable housing, think tank says
28/08/2018 The Government should limit the ‘windfall gains’ of landowners by freezing the price of land newly designated for housing, a progressive think tank says. |
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Land compensation rules ‘barrier’ to development, think tank says
16/04/2018 A change in the UK’s land compensation rules could lead to local authorities having an extra £9.3bn to invest in infrastructure, think tank says. |
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Cheshire East refers land purchase to police
07/03/2018 Cheshire East Council have referred two new matters of concern to the local police after an assessment flagged concerns over the purchase of a plot of land. |
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First councils submit land charges data to new register
02/03/2018 The first group of local authorities have started providing records for the launch of a new national Local Land Charges (LLC) register. |
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Doctor Who costs Cardiff taxpayers £1m
23/02/2018 Cardiff taxpayers are over £1m out of pocket as a Doctor Who exhibition fails to attract visitors. |
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Finding land for development
20/12/2017 Stefan Webb explains how data platforms can improve the speed, quality and cost of planning. |
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Government’s ‘pre-occupation’ with housing costs business
04/12/2017 The Government’s focus on new homes is leading to increased pressure on the availability of employment land and premises, businesses say. |
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Whitehall’s failure to prioritise local housing needs perpetuates crisis, report warns
20/09/2017 Government’s ‘failure’ to prioritise local housing needs over market demand will perpetuate housing crisis and use up space in the countryside, report claims. |
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Council installs security measures to stop ‘unauthorised incursions’ on land
15/08/2017 Reading Council has announced it will be undertaking work to install security measures to prevent ‘unauthorised incursions’ on public land. |
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Council announces ‘stopping sites’ for Gypsy and Traveller families
27/07/2017 Leeds Council has introduced a scheme designed to help Gypsy and Traveller families set up camp on ‘appropriate sites’. |
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The cost of glyphosate-based weed killers
26/07/2017 While some councils may be banning the use of glyphosate-based herbicides, others still advocate their use to control weeds. William Eichler investigates. |
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Land banking punishes working families, campaigners say
07/07/2017 Nearly one in three houses that have been given the go ahead never get built, according to homelessness campaigners. |
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Council allocates £30,000 to evict squatter
09/06/2017 A district council has decided to take ‘tough action’ to remove a man living on an unauthorised residential plot of land. |
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Holyrood records decrease in derelict and urban vacant land
26/04/2017 The total amount of derelict and urban vacant land in Scotland has decreased by 2%, according to the Scottish government. |
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Everton FC agrees new stadium deal with Liverpool council
24/03/2017 Liverpool City Council is set to agree the principles of an ‘innovative finance model’ with a Premier League football club in order to build a new stadium. |
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Campaigners propose new Government department to co-ordinate land use
06/03/2017 The Government should create a ‘Department of Land Use’ in order to allow for a nationally co-ordinated approach to land use, campaigners argue. |
