Local People To Have The Power Of The Land.

According to government proposals, local people will be able to gain power to build homes within their communities without planning permission being sought. It will be known as the “community right to build” programme and will allow people to build homes, shops, business space and commercial properties on green belt land, as long as enough people are in favour of the proposal. More and more people might start looking for building plots for sale in their area if this proposal has the go ahead. Persons wishing to develop can buy land for sale orbuilding plots for sale on green belt land and build their ideal home if the community agrees. The government hopes that their plan will revitalise rural areas where there is a distinct lack of land for sale and building plots for sale.

Because of planning policy in place, development on green belt is prohibited. However the government wants to remove the “red tape and bureaucracy of the current system” so that people will be able to build their dream home. To allow the build to go ahead would need an overwhelming majority of the local people voting in favour of any specific development in a special local referendum. So locals cannot simply buy any land for sale or building plots for sale on green belt and then plough ahead with a new build, special measures will be put in place. There will be a localism bill by the government that will state that any surplus profits made from the sale or rent of homes will be recycled for the benefit of the local community.

Grant Shapps, housing minister, said “It will give residents the power to give the green light to new homes that are suitable and appropriate for their local area. And because local people are in charge, development will only go ahead with their overwhelming support. I want anyone with the vision and drive to build homes in their area to be able to do so.”

In favour of the scheme is the Home Builders Federation, as they believe that it will make the planning system more flexible and less bureaucratic because of the need for local housing. However not everyone is in favour of the scheme. James Moss, director at Curzon Investment Property, a property consultancy, said “In the real world the only people with the time to attend planning meetings are those opposed to development. Giving people a say is fine but this will lead to even fewer homes being built at a time where we need to be supporting growth, not undermining it through some idealistic principle of empowerment.”

Another skeptic was Andrew Teacher, spokesman of British Property Federation, who said “Grant Shapps promised to make Britain a ‘nation of house builders’ but without clarity over local plans and certainty over how much will get built, the economies of scale we need for a viable market do not stack up.”

So there are both sides to the argument. On the one hand the rural communities need local housing, there is not enough land for sale or building plots for sale for the local people to build upon. However others feel that this will only add to the housing shortage with fewer homes being built and the green belt being affected.
http://www.buildingplotsforsale.org