The government’s planning bill has finally arrived after a constant series of delays. The Club first engaged on what was then called accelerated planning in 2019, and it has taken years to finally deliver a bill. Even more frustratingly, the bill is not at all what was promised and is instead a more nebulous levelling up bill.

When the bill was released the Club hurried to express our concern at this change to the newly rebranded Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Working with members of the APPG on Listed Properties, and some newfound allies such as MP Richard Fuller, we have raised several issues that the new bill fails to address and are asking DLUHC to fix them. The biggest issue we see is a complete lack of action on energy efficiency, which could leave listed property owners struggling for years.

We have also joined with other heritage groups to oppose some of the handful of heritage provisions in the bill including a change to building preservation notices. This last would allow any local council to halt works to any potentially listable building to allow them time to apply for listing. While we are glad to see worthwhile buildings being protected, the proposal to remove compensation to the owner is unfair and we believe it will allow the system to be abused.