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Morning Briefing: government to take aim at developers

The government is taking aim at developers this morning as it launches new planning laws.

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Prime minister Theresa May
Prime minister Theresa May

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Developers should “step up and do their duty to Britain”, Theresa May will say today, according to a briefing of the prime minister’s speech released by government last night.

Most media outlets have given extensive coverage to new plans by the government to reform planning laws with the launch of the new National Planning Policy Framework.

Sajid Javid, housing secretary, told The Sunday Times yesterday that “nimby councils” could lose their planning powers to an independent inspector if they don’t hit their housing targets.

The prime minister, however, has preferred to target developers, taking on land-banking. The Financial Times reports that Ms May’s speech today will give councils the power to prefer developers with higher build-out rates when granting planning permission.

Mr Javid was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, when he took up the call from Shelter and the Campaign to Protect Rural England to tackle viability assessments.

The housing secretary told presenter John Humphrys: “There are too many developers who try to wriggle out [of building affordable homes under Section 106] by saying they’re not going to make enough profit and all sorts of things. So-called ‘viability assessments’ haven’t been transparent enough and they need to change.”

Meanwhile, over the weekend, homelessness minister Heather Wheeler promised to resign if rough sleeping figures continued to rise.

She made the comments to BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour and the Huffington Post has a report on it.

Meanwhile Labour is calling for help from government for councils in the spring statement financial update, which will be a week on Tuesday.

This morning also sees the release of a “costed” report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on improving the private rented sector. And there is a row in Redditch between a housing association and some of its tenants over the affordability of its rents.

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