By far the most talked about Bill so far in this Parliament, the proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill has been levied to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing across the UK.
The Bill’s fundamental aim will be to navigate and eliminate some of the persistent barriers that exist in the planning system to fully engage construction as a lever for economic growth. To do this, the Bill will look to make improvements to the current planning committee system at a local authority level, modernising them to deliver an improved service, streamline the delivery process for new infrastructure including upgrades to the national grid, reforming compulsory purchase compensation rules, improving local planning decision making and increasing the capacity of local authorities to process planning applications, and finally by using the funding derived from planning as well as planning itself to deliver nature recovery.
Published information about this Bill centres largely around a statement made by Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP on 30 July.
To kick start the process of planning reform, a consultation has been launched by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The consultation seeks views on giving greater primacy to Local Plans including forcing those local authorities without up-to-date Local Plans to adopt them, adopting a new standard methodology to determine housing need, requiring local authorities to review their greenbelt land with a view to release land now categorised as ‘grey belt’ and fast-tracking brownfield planning applications.
CIOB will be responding to the NPPF consultation, which can be accessed here. Should you wish to send us your views, please contact [email protected] or you can respond directly. The consultation closes on Tuesday 24 September.
One of the more developed bills to have emerged from the King’s Speech, this flagship legislation will primarily look to establish a new public body, Skills England, that aims to develop skills in the workforce.
The Government’s objectives for creating Skills England have already been set out in a press release from the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education, who claim that the body will “bring together the fractured skills landscape and create a shared national ambition to boost the nation’s skills”. To do this Skills England will:
- Develop a “single picture” of national skills needs, working with industry, other government departments, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), unions and a new Industrial Strategy Council to build and maintain a comprehensive assessment of current and future skills needs.
- Identify the priority areas for skills training, including the training for which the new Growth and Skills Levy replacing the Apprenticeship Levy - will be accessible. In doing so, it will ensure that businesses are able to use their skills funding more flexibly and effectively.
- Identify the training for which the growth and skills levy will be accessible.
- Play a crucial role in ensuring that the national and regional skills systems are aligned in meeting skills needs, across constituencies in England.
- Transfer functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) to Skills England.
- Maintain a list of levy-eligible training to ensure value for money, and that the mix of government-funded training available to learners and employers aligns with the identified skills needs.
Now that Skills England has been launched by Government, the accompanying legislation and roll out will take place over the next 12 months.
One of the flagship bills announced during the election campaign, this piece of proposed legislation will look to strengthen employee’s rights in what the Government is calling the “biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation”.
In its constituent parts, the Bill will reform workers’ rights in the first instance and look to deliver a new living wage in the second. To do this, the Government plan to ban zero-hour contracts, ending ‘Fire and Replace’ by reforming the law to provide effective remedies and replace previous statutory codes, implementing rights including parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal for all employees from day one of employment, amongst others.
All of this will be backed up by a new enforcement agency, known as the Fair Work Agency, to strengthen enforcement on workers’ rights.
Many construction companies will watch this piece of legislation with great interest and CIOB will look to update members regularly on developments to the proposed bill. Unlike many other announcements in the King’s Speech, the new Government has committed to delivering this legislation within the first 100 days.
Government will seek to devolve further powers to both combined authorities and mayoralties across England. The changes will include greater devolution of adult skills funding and a new requirement for all English authorities with devolution deals to produce Local Growth Plans to specify a strategy for economic development based on local industry. There is also an offer to transfer more powers for housing, adult education and planning to all county and unitary councils where there is not currently a devolution deal.
From what we know so far, the bill will establish a new framework for English Devolution by:
- “Putting a more ambitious standardised devolution framework into legislation to give local leaders greater powers over the levers of local growth. This will include enhanced powers over strategic planning, local transport networks, skills, and employment support, enabling them to create jobs and improve living standards.
- Making devolution the default setting, meaning places will be granted powers without the need to negotiate agreements where they meet the governance conditions. Local leaders will be able to formally request 23 additional powers according to the framework and the Government will be required to consider the request and either devolve them or publicly explain their reasons for not doing so.
- Improving and unblocking local decision making through more effective governance arrangements, ensuring mayors and Combined Authorities can get on and deliver for their areas.
- Empowering local communities with a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community spaces. This will help to revamp high streets and end the blight of empty premises.”
It is worth noting that, while the proposed bill has an English title, the majority of measures will also extend to Wales.
It is unknown when this Bill will be laid in front of the House of Commons for its first reading.
This proposed bill went slightly under the radar in the Kings Speech, going without a mention despite the potentially important role it might play for a number of key industries, including construction. In fact, organisations like the Construction Products Association (CPA) have called the information provided on the bill so far interesting but unclear.
From our understanding, the proposed bill will primarily look to “preserve the UK’s status as a global leader in product regulation” and ensure that we are well placed to address ongoing concerns about the safety issues of products in both the online and high street marketplaces. The ultimate goal of the Bill is to enable the UK to make independent decisions to either mirror or diverge from EU rules on product safety and metrology. This independence will allow the UK to be updated to take into account or recognise new or updated EU product regulations or end the recognition of EU product regulations where it is in the best interest of businesses and consumers.
There are a few key areas in the proposed bill that will be interesting to keep an eye on from a construction perspective. Specifically, the following, all taken from the background documents to the King’s Speech:
- “responding to new product risks and opportunities to enable the UK to keep pace with technological advances, such as AI”
- “ensuring that the law can be updated to recognise new or updated EU product regulations, including the CE marking, where appropriate to prevent additional costs for businesses and provide regulatory stability.”
It is unclear at this stage the impact that will be felt on construction products and if the many imported products that form the fundamental building blocks of the built environment will be in scope of the bill, especially with the backdrop of the UK Conformity Assessed mark (UKCA) for construction products that is due to come in 2025.
It is unknown when this bill will be laid in front of the House of Commons for its first reading.
