By Kasia Banas, Consultant In one of the biggest announcements from this year’s Conservative Party conference, Theresa May presented government’s plans to remove the cap on councils’ borrowing against housing revenue accounts (HRA). She told the conference in Birmingham that …

By Vivienne Shirley, Senior Consultant The government has launched a fresh consultation on permitted development rights (PDR) for upwards extensions, following its 2016 London-focused consultation which concluded with plans being withdrawn. The new plans were trailed at the recent Tory …

By Daniel Fryd, Senior Consultant Despite positive moves to get councils building, the planning system is failing to deliver affordable homes in the country’s poorest areas, a new TCPA report suggests. The responsibility for building affordable homes is now firmly …

By Daniel Fryd, Senior Consultant Government will not change its housing need targets despite official statistics predicting lower household growth than previously thought, it was confirmed last week. In a consultation report launched at the end of last week, just …

By Daniel Fryd, Senior Consultant Somewhere in the middle of the Chancellor’s 95 minute Autumn Budget speech was a single line on the publication of Oliver Letwin MP’s ‘Independent Review of Build Out’ report. Developers, we are told, ‘do not …

By Vivienne Shirley, Senior Consultant Hammond’s highly-anticipated pre-Brexit budget was slightly underwhelming from a housing and planning perspective. However, he did admit that the Letwin review (published today) confirms that large developers ‘do not engage in systematic land banking’ – …

  Chelgate Local is supporting Built Environment Networking’s upcoming event focused on development in Essex and the South East. Get up to speed with the Essex property market with discussions by leading local politicians and industry experts, outlining the development plans …

By Michael Hardware, Director of Planning and Property The dust has finally settled from another entertaining 2018 party political conference season, with plenty to mull over. One unforgettable highlight this week saw an unconventional podium walk from the Prime Minister at the Conservative conference in Birmingham. Aside from …