The Levelling-up and Regeneration
Bill is shortly due to be debated in Public Bill Committee.
As part of scrutiny, the group is now inviting those with an
interest to submit written evidence to the House of Commons
Public Bill Committee which is going to consider this Bill.
A Public Bill Committee is a committee set up by the House of
Commons to examine the details of a particular Bill. You can find
out more about them on the website here.
The first sitting of this Public Bill Committee is expected to be
on Tuesday 21 June. They are expected to scrutinise the Bill line
by line before reporting back to the House by Tuesday 20
September.
When the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is
no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude
earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 20
September.
Aims of the Bill
The Government published a press release on 11 May
2022 setting out the aims of the Bill. It also published
a policy paper on 11 May 2022 entitled Levelling Up and
Regeneration: further information.
The Bill would make a range of legislative changes associated
with the Government’s “levelling up” agenda, which intends to
reduce geographical, economic, social and health inequalities.
Many of these changes, though not all, were foreshadowed in the
February 2022 White Paper Levelling Up the United
Kingdom. The main measures that the Bill would introduce are:
- Statutory requirements regarding the levelling-up ‘missions’.
These would create a statutory requirement for the Government to
report to Parliament on progress against the twelve missions set
out in the Levelling Up White Paper;
- New ‘combined county authorities’ (CCAs) to act as recipients
of powers and funding under devolution deals within England.
These are alternative legal structures to the combined
authorities and mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) that exist in
some parts of England. Some of the legislative provision for
combined authorities and MCAs would also be altered by the Bill,
to bring them into line with the proposals for CCAs in the Bill;
- The introduction of an infrastructure levy to be implemented
by English local authorities, intended to replace the Community
Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and most developer contributions to
local infrastructure via ‘section 106 agreements’;
- Changes to compulsory purchase to support regeneration.
Currently, local authorities may use compulsory purchase to
achieve the objective of promoting or improving the economic,
social or environmental wellbeing of their area. This definition
would be expanded, to specify that “improvement” includes
regeneration;
- Powers to auction tenancies in high street shops. Local
authorities would be able to “designate” high streets or town
centres that are important to the local economy, then serve a
letting notice on landlords of premises in those areas which have
been vacant for the past year (or over a year from the previous
two years). If the landlord then fails to rent out or make use of
the premises, the local authority can arrange for a rental
auction and require the landlord to rent out the premises to a
particular tenant;
- Requirements for local authorities to produce environmental
outcomes reports;
- Requirements to make available certain information regarding
land ownership, to increase the transparency of ownership of, and
interests held in, land.
Many parts of the Bill would extend only to England and Wales,
and in some cases would have effect only in England.
The parts of the Bill concerning levelling up missions, planning
data provision, environmental outcomes reports and the review of
RICS extend to the whole of the United Kingdom. The parts
concerning combined authorities, local government, street names,
planning, the infrastructure levy, compulsory purchase,
development corporations, rental auctions on high streets, and
pavement licensing, extend to England and Wales but have
practical effect only in England. The parts concerning land
information, historic environment records, and the Vagrancy Act
extend to England and Wales.
