Government launches landowner survey to shape planning and housing policy

The CLA has been working with the UK Government to discover what barriers landowners face when putting forward land for residential development. The government has ambitions to deliver 1.5m homes and that requires a large supply of land. In order to help the system work more effectively, officials are seeking for feedback from the sector to understand the challenges and opportunities landowners consider when putting forward land for residential development. 

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)’s Land Strategy team is collaborating with the CLA to gather member views anonymously. The aim is to find out: 

• Whether landowners have sought to undertake residential development on their land
• Whether (and how) they wanted to be involved in the eventual development
• Barriers and facilitators to taking forward residential development

The CLA works closely with the MHCLG and facilitates direct contact with our members. In January, the MHCLG held a focus group with CLA members to discuss stewardship-led development (where members take a longer-term responsibility for a landholding and share in the risk of development).

We are working on members’ behalf to ensure that those who want to develop residential housing, can. For example, in our Programme for Government, we recommended: 

• Ringfencing planning application fees to finance improvements to the system
• Introducing a Planning Passport for Rural Exception Sites
• Amending the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) definition of affordable housing for rent to allow private landowners and community groups to develop affordable housing without becoming registered providers
• Removing Capital Gains Tax liability on land sold to registered providers
• Cooperating with landowners and existing rural communities to facilitate aims to build a fresh generation of new towns

The MHCLG would be grateful for your participation as more responses means it will have better quality data to inform future strategies. The CLA will continue to lobby on our members’ behalf for reforms to the planning system, and we feel this survey is a part of that very important work. 

For any questions about the survey please contact avril.roberts@cla.org.uk OR LandStrat@communities.gov.uk.