Government to relax construction planning rules

The government has confirmed it is to extend planning permission deadlines under new measures to stimulate the building of thousands of new homes as the UK emerges from the COVID-19 lockdown. Under the changes announced by Robert Jenrick, planning approvals with an expiry date between the start of lockdown in March and the end of this year will be extended to 1 April 2021. Existing planning rules mean that development permissions usually expire after three years if work has not been started. However, hundreds of projects with expiry dates during the lockdown period were put in jeopardy. It said the changes would help these developments to resume as the economy recovers.

The Guardian (22/06/2020)