Funding for local planning

£22.8m for Neighbourhood Plans

Housing Minister Alok Sharma MP has announced funding of around £5.5 million per year until 2022 to provide communities with specialist support to help develop a Neighbourhood Plan.

Neighbourhood Plans give local communities a say in the development of their area including where homes, shops, green spaces and offices should be built and how they should look.

Mr Sharma said: 'Neighbourhood planning gives communities a powerful set of tools to shape their area and drive local growth. The government is committed to giving communities even more of a say in the development of their area, and that’s why we’re dedicating around £23 million between 2018 and 2022 to help groups create Neighbourhood Plans.

'With over 400 now in place more people than ever are having their say on the location and design of new homes, shops and offices in their community. I congratulate the many thousands of community minded people across England carrying out this valuable work.'

Trudi Elliott, Royal Town Planning Institute Chief Executive, said: 'Having worked directly with over 274 groups to help them develop neighbourhood plans since their inception, the RTPI knows how much people care about these plans and how important they are in shaping places and building public trust in the planning system. It’s also clear from our experience that people need support to make the plan-making experience easier and worthwhile, so this latest funding is very welcome.'

The government’s housing white paper published in February 2017 set out measures to give local people more of a say over development in their area and build the right homes in the right places.

Following the housing white paper, a further raft of measures to improve neighbourhood planning will be implemented later this year, as the Neighbourhood Planning Act comes into effect. This includes new rules to speed up and strengthen the popular neighbourhood planning process by simplifying how plans can be revised as local circumstances change.