Government plans to help construction in coronavirus recovery

10:47 AM, 23rd June 2020, About 5 years ago 3

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New measures to help the construction industry boost building and return to work safely will be introduced this week, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP announced 22 June 2020.

Planning permission deadlines will be extended, planning appeals will be sped up and builders will be allowed more flexible working hours following agreement with their local council.

Planning permission usually expires after three years if work has not started onsite. Sites with consent that have an expiry date between the start of lockdown and the end of this year will now see their consent extended to 1 April 2021. This will prevent work that has been temporarily disrupted by the pandemic from stopping altogether.

The government estimates that by the end of this month alone, more than 400 residential permissions providing more than 24,000 new homes would have expired. The new measures will help these developments and more resume as the economy recovers.

New measures will also permanently grant the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) the ability to use more than one procedure – written representations, hearings and inquiries – at the same time when dealing with a planning appeal, enabling appeals to happen much faster.

Last year a pilot programme tested this approach and implemented recommendations of the Rosewell Review, which more than halved the time taken for appeal inquiries, from 47 weeks to 23 weeks.

This will also help builders to quickly agree more flexible construction site working hours with their local council for a temporary period. This will make it easier to follow public health guidance onsite and by staggering builders’ arrival times, public transport will be less busy and the risk of infection will be reduced.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Building the homes the country needs is central to the mission of this government and is an important part of our plans to recover from the impact of the coronavirus.

“New laws will enable us to speed up the pace of planning appeals and save hundreds of construction sites from being cancelled before they have a chance to get spades in the ground, helping to protect hundreds of thousands of jobs and create many others.

“Taken together, these measures will help to keep workers safe and our economy moving as we work together to bounce back from the pandemic.”

Today’s announcement builds on measures to support the economy and protect the capacity of the construction sector, including:

Introducing more than £330 billion of loans and guarantees to help firms continue operating
Deferring self-assessment payments until 2021 – crucial for a sector in which many are self-employed
Providing households across the country with reassurance such as 3-month mortgage holidays, including for landlords, alongside a ban on tenant evictions which has been extended to 5 months
Safely reopening the housing market, helping estate agents, conveyancers, removals firms and the wider construction and property industry to return to work while following social distancing guidelines
Launching a Charter with the Home Builders Federation, helping construction sites reopen in line with health and safety guidance

The government continues to listen to all parts of industry to see what further support may be required.

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Question Everything

11:46 AM, 23rd June 2020, About 5 years ago

It's hard to not be cynical about this.

“Building the homes the country needs is central to the mission of this government and is an important part of our plans to recover from the impact of the coronavirus."

Mortgage applications in some last report are down 80% (from memory), and given so many of the country are out of work completely or will be due to the businesses that won't re-open or scale down, yet .gov wants to keep flooding the market with property, thereby decreasing demand in a recession where it can only force people further into negative equity. Which in turn creates repossessions.

I'm all for the little guy keeping an income, but they virtue-signal this as "good for the economy". Maybe what they mean is if the construction companies fail, there will be unlimited legal proceedings from investors to get their money back?

We have known for a long time that .gov has been getting large sums from the construction industries. The massive profits these companies are able to make due to the current value of property versus the cost of building plus the grants and favours being given by .gov and local .gov, basically funds the "gifts" .gov gets back to them.

It is effectively organised crime, but done in an "ever-so-polite-way". It probably also funds Shelter.

The global economic situation we have is because big business has not been allowed to fail. They have been propped up by QE and favours etc, and the stock markets are bought-up to give an image "of all is ok". Because they know they won't be allowed to fail, they just keep milking the system.

While at our end we are robbed through corrupt tax laws (S24) and excessive stamp duties, and incriminating regulations under the premise of not running sound and legitimate businesses. Anyone notice the inconsistency?

Atlas Shrugged, eventually.

On another note of corruption, please see this site https://www.keepbritainfree.com/
Someone is taking the legal challenge against .gov in the economic and human rights abuse they are currently committing upon all of us.

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Luk Udav

12:54 PM, 23rd June 2020, About 5 years ago

So, first thing (OK, after the Desmond CIL corruption) is to help their land banking donors NOT build.

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Freda Blogs

16:59 PM, 23rd June 2020, About 5 years ago

“ The government continues to listen to all parts of industry to see what further support may be required.”
Landlords perhaps?

Well, any support would be welcome, further support is too much to ask...

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