As expected, the Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves announced funding in the Budget to boost capacity in the planning system.

She said that £48m of additional funding would be provided to recruit an extra 350 planners at local authorities in England.

According to HM Treasury, the measures will help end ‘years of dither and delay’ and support faster decision-making on stalled housing and infrastructure projects while boosting capacity in the planning system and the drive towards the government’s 1.5m homes target.

The funds will also be used to expand the ‘Pathways to Planning’ graduate scheme and create a Planning Careers Hub to retain and retrain existing staff.

We will wait to see how this investment works in practice – any improvements are likely to take some time to feed through the system.

In her Budget, the chancellor also announced that £1.3bn of the National Housing Delivery Fund will be devolved to mayors and that a ‘mansion tax’ will be levied on properties worth more than £2m.

Please contact us to find out more about how any government reforms or policy changes will affect your plans or project.