The budget of march 2007 outlined several key issues for those involved in planning and devlopment

A new framework for positive planning for economic development will be proposed in the Planning White Paper due later this spring, according to the Government’s latest Budget Report.

The report, produced by Chancellor Gordon Brown, stressed that the forthcoming policy document would include measures designed to ensure that ‘planning takes a positive approach to sustainable economic development’.

Included will be ‘a more explicit role for market signals to inform plans and planning decisions’, said the report.

The Treasury document also promised ‘a substantial improvement in the process for obtaining planning permission for all users with clearer and simpler processes and quicker handling of appeals cases, backed by a more efficient plan-making process’.

As already highlighted, the White Paper will set out a new single system of planning for major infrastructure with final decisions taken by an Independent Planning Commission.

Planning Gain Supplement (PGS)

In a related development the Budget Report also clarified some aspects of the Government's thinking on the Planning Gain Supplement (PGS). Ministers have not yet decided whether to press ahead with the new tax and are due to decide later this year.

Ministers have now decided that the local share of the PGS which will accrue to the local authority area involved – 70 per cent of the tax revenue - will be paid direct to the local planning authority (LPA) concerned.

It said the rest would be put into a fund for spending in support of regional infrastructure priorities identified in regional spatial strategies, with an emphasis on transport schemes.

The document said: ‘This would enable regional PGS revenues to be spent on infrastructure projects or areas of the region where additional resources, particularly transport, are most needed.’ Thirty per cent of revenues from the proposed planning gain supplement would be returned directly to the relevant region, according to budget documents.

• Local planning authorities will be required to undertake sound infrastructure planning as part of their local development frameworks.
• The government will encourage local areas to use annual monitoring reports to manage infrastructure delivery.
• Payments to local authorities would be made on a regular basis to ensure receipts could be spent effectively.
• The government will examine special arrangements for special purpose vehicles with planning powers, such as urban development corporations.
• It also said that the PGS would not be introduced before 2009 at the earliest, to allow further consultation.
  

• The remaining revenues will be returned to the region where it is raised and placed in a special fund where it will be available for regional infrastructure priorities.

Local Development Frameworks
Whitehall has decided that LPAs will be required to undertake ‘sound infrastructure planning as part of the formation and review of their so-called Local Development Frameworks, maximising the use of existing infrastructure and deploying demand management options before setting out plans for new infrastructure’.

In a further Budget initiative the Treasury has launched a consultation on brownfield land tax incentives. The government is considering the reform of land remediation relief and the landfill tax exemption.

The administration has said it is keen to explore whether the introduction of a planning permission condition would be the most effective way to target relief more closely on development.

Miliband welcomes Budget as next steps to low-carbon economy
Environment Secretary, David Miliband, welcomed the carbon-cutting measures in the Budget as the next steps towards a low-carbon economy.  The Budget contains measures for Government, business and individuals to further tackle climate change.

Last week Britain became the first country in the world to set out a long term legal framework for the transition to a low carbon economy in its draft Climate Change Bill.

Following the Budget statement, David Miliband said: ‘Today's Budget builds on the landmark Climate Change Bill announced recently, together helping to make Britain a low carbon economy. The new measures will encourage individuals, business and Government to reduce carbon emissions from homes, transport, energy use and waste.

‘Climate change is a global issue and, as well as encouraging action at home, this Budget will help cut carbon emissions internationally. The new Defra/ DfID £800 million joint fund will help to deliver environmental benefits in developing countries, starting with protection against deforestation in the Congo Basin.’ Deforestation accounts for nearly one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The green finance measures in the Budget include:

• Landfill Tax to rise to encourage the development of alternatives to landfill
• Inflation-only increase in climate change levy
• Further details of a Stamp duty exemption for zero carbon homes
• Further use of Vehicle Excise Duty to incentivise the purchase of low carbon cars
• No income tax or capital gains tax for income derived from micro-power generation in the home
• Phasing-out of high-energy light bulbs in the UK by 2011
• Incentives for biofuel development and use
• Competition for a carbon capture and storage demonstration
• An £800m window of the international Environmental Transformation Fund for environmental protection, including £50m for the Congo Basin.

The Government will also set out its policy in the coming months on carbon emissions from the energy and waste sectors in the Energy White Paper and Waste Strategy Review.

The Budget contains key announcements including:

• competition to develop the UK’s first full-scale demonstration of carbon capture and storage, the result of which will be announced next year;
• an increase in fuel duty rates of 2 pence per litre (ppl) from 1 October 2007, and increases in the next two years of 2ppl and 1.84ppl respectively;
• announcing car vehicle excise duty rates for the next three years, including rates for the most polluting cars rising to £400 and rates for clean cars in band B falling to £35;
• a review to examine the vehicle and fuel technologies which over the next 25 years could help ‘decarbonise’ road transport;
• a package of measures to support biofuels including extending the 20 pence per litre biofuels duty differential to 2009-10;
• a rise in climate change levy rates from 1 April 2008 in line with current inflation;
• that from 1 October 2007 all new zero-carbon homes costing up to £500,000 will pay no stamp duty, with zero-carbon homes costing in excess of £500,000 receiving a reduction in their stamp duty bill of £15,000;
• an intention that, by the end of the next decade, all householders will have been offered help to introduce energy efficient measures with the aim that, where practicably possible, all homes will have achieved their cost-effective energy efficiency potential;
• increasing funds available through the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to a total of over £18 million to help meet the demand from households for microgeneration technologies; and
• a £800 million international window for the Environmental Transformation Fund to finance overseas development projects that deliver both poverty reduction and environmental benefits in developing countries. Deforestation accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Budget also reports on the Government’s strategy for tackling other environmental challenges including:

• an increase from 1 April 2008 in the standard rate of the landfill tax by £8 a tonne per year, until at least 2010-11; and an increase in the lower rate of the landfill tax from £2 per tonne to £2.50 per tonne from 1 April 2008; and an increase in the aggregates levy rate to £1.95 per tonne from 1 April 2008.
• The Government published the draft Climate Change Bill  the first of its kind in any country, and accompanying strategy on 13 March. The draft Bill sets out a framework for moving the UK to a low-carbon economy, demonstrating the UK's leadership as progress continues towards establishing a post-2012 global emissions agreement.

Key points of the draft Climate Change Bill include:

• A series of clear targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions - including making the UK's targets for a 60 per cent reduction by 2050 and a 26 to 32 per cent reduction by 2020 legally binding.
• A new system of legally binding five year ‘carbon budgets’, set at least 15 years ahead, to provide clarity on the UK's pathway towards its key targets and increase the certainty that businesses and individuals need to invest in low-carbon technologies.
  

The draft bill sets out a vision for how the UK can move to a low carbon economy including:

• Investment in low-carbon fuels and technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, wind, wave and solar power.
• Significantly more efficient use of energy.
• A step change in the way energy suppliers operate so that they focus on reducing demand rather than just supplying as much energy as possible.
• Consumers becoming producers as well as consumers of energy.

The draft bill will be subject to a full public consultation alongside pre-legislative scrutiny in Parliament

The UK is one of the few countries on target to meet its Kyoto commitment; by 2010, we predict we will have met it almost twice over.

In a nutshell: planning and physical regeneration

• More details on the planning gain supplement;
• Consultation launched into brownfield land remediation subsidies;
• A ‘shared equity competition’ for first-time buyers, to be announced today by communities secretary Ruth Kelly;
• Restriction of business rate relief on empty properties, in line with Barker and Lyons reports;
• Brown will encourage major banks and building societies to create mortgages for immediate capital investment in home energy efficiency;
• The grant fund for microgeneration in the home will be increased by 50 per cent to £18 million;
• Ofgem will look at how green homes can benefit from selling energy back to the grid;
• Confirmation that all zero carbon homes of up to £500,000 will be exempt from stamp duty until 2012;
• The chancellor will examine what help he can give to heritage and church buildings.

In a nutshell: Community renewal

• A £80 million fund for community groups, for the years to 2011.
• VAT charges will be dropped to allow academies to share their facilities, including playing fields, with their communities;
• The Futurebuilders scheme will be expanded to include sport and environmental groups;
• Every school will become an extended community school;
• Funds for expanding Childline, Parentline Plus and other parenting services;
• Expanding hours of free nursery education for three and four year olds, from 12.5 to 15 hours per week.

End to relief for empty commercial buildings

• Reforms announced by Gordon Brown will reduce the duration of the existing empty property relief to three months for all properties with a further three months for industrial buildings and warehouses.

• Chancellor Gordon Brown said that this would enhance the supply of commercial property, reduce rents and improve access for new firm
  
  
• Brown said: ‘As recommended by the Barker Report and now today by the Lyons Report and in line with representations from the Federation of Small Businesses, commercial property lying empty should not continue to be given generous business rate relief, particularly because this leads to higher rents in areas with highest demand

• He said that the measure would also enhance the supply of brownfield sites for redevelopment for housing.