Community Right to Build

• Posted by David Jones on 23rd Jul ’10 at 16:37 BST
• 0 comments

Grant Shapps announces proposals which will give the community the right to build

Grant Shapps has announced the Community Right to Build initiative. This, it is intended will be facilitated via Community Land Trusts controlled and managed by community organisations.

In announcing the proposals Shapps confirmed that rural communities should be freed from local authority control and allowed to bring forward development to serve the rural community subject to 80 -90% of the community supporting the proposal.

The DCLG have published a flyer to promote the right to build DCLG - Right to Build Flyer This confirms communities will be devolved power to take forward developments for new housing, shops and facilities in their area.

Legislation will be forthcoming within the localism bill (due after the summer recess). Shapps suggests that provisions within the bill will allow a community organisation to go ahead with development without the need for an application for planning permission, if there is overwhelming community support for the development and minimum criteria are met.

At this stage it is not know what the minimum criteria will be, however interesting the DCLG FAQs confirms that in cases where a proposal compies with current development plan objectives it is likely to be easier to submit a planning application.

A key element of the right to build programme will be a local referendum seeking the views of the local community. Again the FAQs indicate that the Government would be seeking 90% ’buy in’ from the community to support a right to build scheme. For the sake of transparency and fairness it is envisaged that the referendum would be undertaken by the local authority and the local community charged for the privilege.

David Jones MRTPI Head of Planning at Evans Jones LLP, comments:-

”The Community Right to Buy provisions will be an interesting experiment in community involvement. The last administration sought to deliver affordable housing to meet the needs of rural communities via the development of ’exception sites’
Whilst exception sites have certainly delivered some affordable housing in practice many communities did not see the need or resisted the provision of 100% affordable housing sites.
The collation governments proposal allows communities to build a range of development types and tenures (not limited to housing) This may permit a degree of cross subsidy of affordable homes, however the initial financial commitment required by the community to negotiate with landowners, draw up appropriate plans, engage developers and fund the referendum is likely to be a significant disincentive.
I do see a role for consultants and developers to partner with community associations and provide assistance in the development process. However this will only be achieved if consultants and developers have confidence that schemes will ultimately gain the support of the community. ”

As a practice we are currently consulting with Parish councils to gauge the level of support for Grant Shapps proposals. The level of response will be reported in forthcoming Blogs on this subject.

If you represent a community group interested in considering development options for your local community and would like to find out more then please complete the following questionnaire Community Questionnaire or contact David direct - David Jones e-mail

If you would like to read more about out planning services then please follow the link: Evans Jones - Planning