Ministers are planning to include a “sunset clause” in the Planning Bill, which would set an expiry date for planning permissions.
The deadlines, potentially combined with additional levies, would amount to a ‘use it or lose it’ policy to discourage landbanking by housing developers.
Under plans being discussed the options would apply only to larger sites to ensure that small and medium housebuilders were not treated unfairly. One source said: “We’ve got to tread carefully, but a mixed approach could work.”
The government is also looking to tighten rules on retrospective planning permissions to ensure that developers have approval before starting works. Fees and fines will be increased for those who deliberately or habitually break the rules.
Housebuilders have argued, however, that the problem is overstated. In 2018 the former Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin reviewed the problem and found there was no evidence that developers deliberately hoarded land.
