Planning Minister Nick Boles has announced a new multi-million pound cash boost to help more communities.
The cash will help more communities take centre stage in planning the shape, look and feel of their local area.
Neighbourhood planning gives people a major say in shaping development in their area. It gives communities the power to help decide where development should go including the type and design of development that they want to allow planning permission for.
Over 2 years local planning authorities will benefit from up to £17 million to help communities turn the vision for the future of their local area into a reality.
From January local planning authorities will be able to claim grants of up to £50,000 to help up to 10 communities get going with their neighbourhood plans. From April this will be extended even further making £100,000 available to kick start up to 20 plans in the area. Authorities will then receive a further £25,000 for every neighbourhood plan that gets through a successful examination.
More than 300 communities are already using the new powers introduced in the Localism Act to work up plans for neighbourhood areas that decide, for example, the location of new homes or what green spaces communities to protect.
Planning Minister Nick Boles said: “Communities across the country are showing real enthusiasm for neighbourhood planning and taking up the powers we gave them to get directly involved in making - this is in stark contrast to the top down only decisions we saw before.
“The new financial support we are making available today to councils will enable them to open up neighbourhood planning so that even more communities can turn paper plans into the realities of prospering neighborhoods that are growing and developing in the ways they want to see.”
