Planning shake-up aimed at development

George Osborne said the planning system had held back investment and created distortions in the way that businesses compete, deterring development and growth.

New measures include introducing a new presumption in favour of sustainable development and localising choice about the use of land which has been previously developed.

The Government also plans to pilot a land auction model and introduce a number of measures to streamline and speed up the planning process.

Mark Finch, director of Drivers Jonas Deloitte in Leeds, said: “The Chancellor’s announcements have...rightly placed sustainability at the heart of new development decisions with the idea of a default ‘yes’ setting being a welcome antidote to the perceived burden of the Localism Agenda.

“His measures have undoubtedly helped to strike a balance between promoting planning best practice in encouraging greater engagement with local communities while incentivising those with the greenest ideas to bring forward new development.”

But Richard Sunderland, managing director of CBRE in Leeds, added: “Whilst the presumption in favour of development is a positive step, the further suggestion that the use of brownfield land will be dictated by the local community, will only lead to confusion and a rash of appeals adding to the workload of councils.”