Tag: 2025

The press release issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 27 February 2025.

An overhaul of local plans has been confirmed by the Government today.

Decisions by councils on new development will be clearer, simpler, and prepared up to four years faster to help fix the housing crisis, thanks to further changes announced today.

An overhaul of local plans – which are frameworks to determine where houses and infrastructure should be built – has been confirmed by the government, with a clear expectation for them to be made within two-and-a-half-years as opposed to an average time of seven years.

New changes include introducing regular assessments to help councils stay on track towards meeting their targets, greater clarity about how plans should be prepared and updated, and using digital tools to increase transparency on available land for new development.

This is backed by an additional £4.5 million to fund salary bursaries for new planning roles in councils, with ambition to surpass the government’s manifesto commitment of 300 extra planners by the end of next year. Nearly 90 graduate planners have already started work through this programme.

Reforms support the government’s Plan for Change to build 1.5 million homes and reinforces the importance of local plans to achieve this, with fewer than a third of places currently having up-to-date plans in place which can lead to speculative, unplanned development.

Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook said:

“The plan-led approach is, and must remain, the cornerstone of our planning system and the government are determined to progress toward universal coverage of local plans.

“The steps we are taking today will ensure that local plans are simpler, faster to prepare and more accessible so that communities in every part of the country can more easily shape decisions about how to deliver the housing and wider development their areas need.

“Alongside further guidance and support to help local authorities realise the full potential of this government’s planning reforms, these changes will help deliver our ambitious Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament.”

Today’s changes build on the growth-focused National Planning Policy Framework announced last December that told councils to play their part to meet local housing need, with new immediate mandatory housing targets and requirements to prioritise lower quality ‘grey belt’ land if unable to meet these targets.

Additional funding of £70,000 will be handed out to each of the 133 local authorities who came forward for support to help them carry out locally led green belt reviews. Further funding for councils at the later stages of plan-making will be announced in due course to help them prepare or update their local plans.

This is part of over £14 million in grant funding available to support councils in updating their local plans and reviewing their current green belt land, enabling them to hire more staff and consultants to carry out technical studies and site assessments. Planning guidance has been updated today to support local councils to identify land for development including grey belt.

This is alongside new guidance on Local Nature Recovery Strategies that is being prepared across England to agree priorities for nature recovery, as well as further guidance for making effective use of land to ensure suitable brownfield land is prioritised for development as much as possible.

The capacity and capability of local authorities will be boosted by increased planning fees with an extra £50 million income, making sure councils have the resources needed to rubberstamp the approval of new homes and infrastructure.

A new dedicated webpage for plan-making resources has been created to provide clearer guidance and practical tools to speed up plan making, underpinned by quality data, and further practical resources will be added over the coming year to help planners at all stages of creating or updating a local plan.

The government is changing the way the plan-making process works with the same focus on policy set out in the 2023 consultation and intends to confirm the necessary regulations and guidance later this year.

Further information

The Housing and Planning Minister’s written ministerial statement can be read in full here.

The government has published a new dedicated webpage for plan-making resources for councils on how to create or update a local plan. It can be found here.

Councils can also sign up to the expression of interest for the Local Government Association’s Pathways to Planning Initiative here.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 26 February 2025.

In the full response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report today (26 February), the government has accepted the findings and sets out its plans to act on all 58 recommendations.

• Sweeping construction, building and fire safety reforms set out as government accepts findings and takes action on all 58 recommendations in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report
• Tough new rules on construction product safety, backed by a strengthened regulator to stamp out bad practice and drive higher standards
• Debarment investigations to be launched for seven organisations named in the report using tough new procurement powers
• Stronger, more enhanced protections for social tenants, including by empowering them to challenge landlords and demand safe, high-quality housing

Tough new reforms to ensure all homes are safe, secure and built to the highest standards will benefit millions of people across the country as the government takes decisive action to tackle the failures that led to the devastating Grenfell Tower tragedy – which resulted in the loss of lives of 72 innocent people.

In the full response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report today (26 February), the government has accepted the findings and sets out its plans to act on all 58 recommendations, driving a sweeping transformation to enhance building and fire safety standards.

Under the proposals, industry will be held to account for failure, with new regulatory measures to prevent a tragedy like the events at Grenfell Tower from ever happening again.

The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said:

The Grenfell Tower tragedy claimed 72 innocent lives in a disaster that should never have happened. The final report exposed in stark and devastating detail the shocking industry behaviour and wider failures that led to the fire, and the deep injustices endured by the bereaved, survivors, and residents.

We are acting on all of the Inquiry’s findings, and today set out our full response, detailing the tough action we are taking to drive change and reform the system to ensure no community will ever have to face a tragedy like Grenfell ever again.

That means greater accountability, stronger regulation, and putting residents at the heart of decision-making. We must deliver the fundamental change required. We owe that to the Grenfell community, to the country, and to the memory of those who lost their lives.

The Grenfell Inquiry’s final report exposed a system that ignored safety risks and failed to listen to residents. The report laid bare ‘systemic dishonesty’ in the industry, failures in the construction sector and by successive governments, and poor regulation in the run up to the disaster.

The government has apologised on behalf of the British state for its part in these failings and introduced significant changes to fix the worst issues exposed by the tragedy.

Reforms set out today include:

• A new single construction regulator to ensure those responsible for building safety are held to account.
• Tougher oversight of those responsible for testing and certifying, manufacturing and using construction products with serious consequences for those who break the rules.
• A legal duty of candour through a new Hillsborough Law, compelling public authorities to disclose the truth, ensuring transparency in major incidents, and holding those responsible for failures to account.
• Stronger, clearer, and enforceable legal rights for residents, making landlords responsible for acting on safety concerns.
• Empowering social housing residents to challenge landlords and demand safe, high-quality housing, by expanding the Four Million Homes training programme. Make it easier for tenants to report safety concerns and secure landlord action by taking forward the Make Things Right campaign.
• Ensuring lasting transparency and accountability by creating a publicly accessible record of all public inquiry recommendations.

As well as changes in regulation, in December 2024, the government launched its Remediation Acceleration Plan which sets out tough new measures to get buildings fixed quicker and ensure rogue freeholders are held to account.

Building Safety Minister Alex Norris said:

The Grenfell Tower fire was a preventable tragedy, and the failings it exposed demanded fundamental change.

Our response today to the Inquiry’s findings sets out a comprehensive plan to reform the construction sector, strengthen oversight and make sure that residents are the priority when deciding on building safety issues.

We will continue working closely with industry, local authorities and the Grenfell community to make sure these reforms deliver real, lasting change and rebuild trust.

Supplier Accountability

Today the government set out the next steps of its review to identify where the Inquiry’s report found failings by specific named organisations in relation to the Grenfell fire.

New powers under the Procurement Act will be used to investigate seven of the organisations criticised in the report. If certain grounds are met, their names will be added to a published debarment list which must be taken into account by contracting authorities when awarding new contracts.

A legacy of justice for the Grenfell community

The government remains fully committed to supporting the bereaved families, survivors and residents long-term, as well as to working with the independent Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission to ensure a fitting and lasting memorial, determined by the community. This will serve as a permanent tribute to honour those lives lost and those whose lives were changed forever.

The transformation set out today is not only about fixing the failures of the past but about ensuring a safer future for generations to come. The highest safety standards will be embedded into the 1.5 million homes the government is committed to delivering this Parliament, ensuring that every new home meets robust safety requirements.

The government response makes clear there is still much more to do and is committed to taking decisive action in response to every recommendation.

Notes to editors:

• The government’s progress towards implementing Inquiry recommendations will be published every quarter from mid-2025. We will also provide an annual update to Parliament to ensure wider scrutiny of the pace and direction of work.
• We will deliver reform using a phased approach over the course of this Parliament, bringing together the recommendations directed at government and wider reform as coherent packages. The first phase (2025 to 2026) will focus on making sure that we effectively deliver our current programme of regulatory reform and change. The second phase (2026 to 2028) will focus on having fully developed proposals to deliver recommendations and wider reform, including via legislation. From 2028 onwards, the Government will focus on implementing these reforms.
• We will keep the new system under review to evaluate its effectiveness and ensure it is delivering the intended improvements to residents’ lives. We will make sure that we are taking on residents’ feedback as part of this.
• This response marks the start of a new relationship between government and industry that is based on transparency, clarity, collective responsibility and external scrutiny. We will hold actors in the system to account, effectively enforce standards, steward the highest standards of culture and behaviour and facilitate transparent conversations. However, we also expect industry to take responsibility to instil this change.
• Safe housing is not a privilege but a fundamental right, and these reforms will ensure that right is upheld in every community. A green paper is also being launched today which includes detailed proposals for system wide reform of the construction products regime.
• Debarment investigations into the organisations are set out in today’s Written Ministerial Statement.
• The government will continue to support for the Metropolitan Police’s independent investigation, ensuring that those responsible for the failures leading to the tragedy are held to account.

Other measures include:

• Raising standards by consulting on a new College of Fire and Rescue later in 2025 to improve training and professionalism of firefighters.
• Stopping unqualified individuals from making critical fire safety decisions, by legally requiring fire risk assessors to have their competence certified.
• Continuing implementation of new Residential PEEPs policy to improve the fire safety and evacuation of disabled and vulnerable residents in high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings, engaging with relevant stakeholders on the implementation.