Queen's Speech 2022 - Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

“A bill will be brought forward to drive local growth, empowering local leaders to regenerate their areas, and ensuring everyone can share in the United Kingdom’s success. The planning system will be reformed to give residents more involvement in local development.”

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• ●  Level up the UK, grow the economy in the places that need it most and regenerate our towns and cities – giving people the opportunities they want, where they live.

• ●  Improve the planning system to give communities a louder voice, making sure developments are beautiful, green and accompanied by new infrastructure and affordable housing.

  The main benefits of the Bill would be:

• ●  Laying the foundations for all of England to have the opportunity to benefit from a devolution deal by 2030 – giving local leaders the powers they need to drive real improvement in their communities.

• ●  Improving outcomes for our natural environment by introducing a new approach to environmental assessment in our planning system. This benefit of Brexit will mean the environment is further prioritised in planning decisions.

• ●  Capturing more of the financial value created by development with a locally set, non-negotiable levy to deliver the infrastructure that communities need, such as housing, schools, GPs and new roads.

• ●  Simplifying and standardising the process for local plans so that they are produced more quickly and are easier for communities to influence.

  The main elements of the Bill are:

• ●  Placing a duty on the Government to set Levelling Up missions and produce an annual report updating the country on delivery of these missions.

• ●  Creating a new model of combined authority: the ‘County Deal’ which will provide local leaders with powers to enhance local accountability, join up services and provide transparent decision making to rejuvenate their communities, increase their ability to reflect local preferences in arrangements including directly elected leaders’ titles.

• ●  Unlocking new powers for local authorities to bring empty premises back into use and instigate rental auctions of vacant commercial properties in town centres and on high streets.

• ●  Giving residents more of a say over changing street names and ensuring everyone can continue to benefit from al fresco dining.

• ●  Strengthening neighbourhood planning and digitalising the system to make local plans easier to find, understand and engage with; by making it easier for local authorities to get local plans in place, we will limit speculative development.

  Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will, in the main, extend to England and Wales and apply to England only, with some provisions extending and applying across the UK.

Key facts

• ●  The UK is the fifth largest economy in the world. If cities in the North and Midlands were as productive as London and South East, UK GDP could be boosted by around £180 billion.

• ●  Nine Combined Authority mayors have been elected since 2017, which has resulted in more decisions on business support, employment support, public health, and transport being taken by locally accountable leaders.

• ●  72 per cent of retail sales in 2020 took place in store but vacancy rates on high streets remain high at 13.5 per cent. A one per cent increase in vacancy rates is equal to around a nine per cent fall in prime rental incomes.

• ●  This Government is already delivering the highest levels of housing in 30 years – with 244,000 homes delivered last year. People increasingly support more homes being built in their local area, up from 28 per cent in 2010 to 57 per cent in 2018 but the current system cannot meet the national demand for housing.

• ●  Results from a YouGov poll shows that 69 per cent of respondents had never engaged with a Local Plan consultation, rising to 80 per cent for 18-35 year olds.