A discussion between Ministers has started regarding the applications to change the New Homes Bonus regime, which could lead to cutting payments to planning authorities without a local plan.
This would mean the current six-year period would decrease its payments to only 4 or less. Housing won under appeal is also being considered to a reduction in payments.
On top of this, the consultation paper contemplates weather or not there should be a baseline for which these payments would be made. This could be based on a national figure or by the average local output based on a number of years.
Leading on from the announcements made during the Autumn statement last month, the Government emphasised that they will be evaluating the regime.
The documents conclusion clarifies that any potential changes won’t be enforced until 2017 or 2018 and they will be created to “focus” on the options of delivering new homes, and
“freeing up resources to be recycled within the local government settlement to support authorities with particular pressures, such as adult social care, following the outcome of the 2015 Spending Review”.
In the mean time, a provisional allocations for councils in England has been published by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
A total of around £293m of payments will be made in relation to 186,573 net additions to the housing stock (October to October) and 2,253 empty homes are not being used again.
The Councils Wiltshire, Leeds, Brent, Wandsworth and Tower Hamlets are receiving the largest payments leading on from the most up to date years delivery.
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