A review of the planning system is critical
National Federation of Builders
The National Federation of Builders respond to the new Building Better Building Beautiful Commission report.
The Building Better Building Beautiful Commission (BBBBC) published its final report which contains over 130 practical recommendations to support the creation of more beautiful communities, including:
- Planting millions of trees over the next 5 years
- Speeding up the planning process for beautiful buildings through a new ‘Fast Track for Beauty’ rule for councils
- Increasing democracy and involving communities in local plans and planning
- Bringing derelict buildings back into use VAT free, or charge at most a reduced VAT of 5% and encourage the re-use of buildings.
Richard Beresford, chief executive of the NFB said: “The BBBBC report highlights a number of very important issues, such as the need for a more predictable and rational planning system, greater local engagement, and an increased focus on sustainability and biodiversity.”
The National Federation of Builders has been involved and launched several initiatives addressing some of these issues, such asthe MCG Carbon reportwhich recognised how crucial it is for the industry to make a shift to more sustainable construction approaches.
Beresford added “Many of our housebuilding members, who are predominantly small and medium sized builders, already build beautiful, high quality homes and communities but this is often not recognised by local authority planning departments or the Government. However, we welcome any policy which increases opportunities for the best practitioners to win more work and have sites allocated in local plans. We look forward to working with the Government to deliver a policy which achieves this ambition, rather than setting a minimum standard for the biggest developers to meet.”
