3 March 2015
A multi-million pound boost to support communities looking to set up neighbourhood plans has been confirmed.
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Neighbourhood planning allows people to decide the future development of their area, including where new self or custom build homes could be built. And nearly 1,400 areas representing 6 million people across England are already using their neighbourhood planning powers, with others looking to follow suit.
Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis announced that neighbourhood planning groups can now apply for grant funding as part of the £22.5 million programme. Grants could be used to pay for events to engage the local community, print leaflets and to pay for specialist planning expertise for self or custom build projects.
The support programme runs to 2018 and from April it will also provide community groups with technical assistance and expert advice to support new neighbourhood plans and neighbourhood development orders, throughout the process.
“From the very beginning we’ve been clear that we wanted to give power back from Whitehall to local communities and with 6 million people living in areas producing neighbourhood plans the success of our reforms is clear,” the Housing and Planning Minister announced.
“Now I want to keep up the momentum, and I want to encourage more areas to come forward and this new £22 million programme for grant applications will do just that. It will also support lots more areas and enable people to take control over planning in their neighbourhood.”
Local people can draw up ‘neighbourhood plans’ that can be used in determining planning applications, and ‘neighbourhood development orders’ that grant planning permission; and vote them into force in a referendum. To date, every one of the 48 plans and 4 orders submitted to a local referendum have been approved by local people.
The government has launched an online toolkit for neighbourhood planning communities to help navigate the process, explain the application procedure and develop their plan as effectively as possible.
