Wirral Waters, Peel’s £4.5bn regeneration scheme in Merseyside, has been granted final planning approval by the secretary of state.
The 17m sq ft plan for the East Float site on the derelict docks in Birkenhead was approved by Wirral council’s planning committee last month. But it needed final approval by the …

Housing minister Grant Shapps has today pledged nearly £1bn of funding for councils that give planning permission for new housing development.
In the proposals for the New Homes Bonus, which are now open for public consultation, the government will match the council tax raised from new homes for the first six …

Communities secretary Eric Pickles acted unlawfully in unilaterally revoking the system of regional planning strategies in England, the High Court has found today.
The court has given its judgment in the judicial review brought by housebuilder Cala Homes against the revocation of regional planning. It found that the secretary of state …

The government is set to introduce a presumption in favour of viable development as part of its national planning framework, which is due to be published next year.
The rule will mean that, in areas lacking their own “neighbourhood plans” that have been put together by local communities, developments that are …

The city of York has launched ‘New City Beautiful’- a vision document for York drawn up by a team led by urbanist Professor Alan Simpson.
The vision plans to create a car-free city that will compete with international cities of the world.
The report has now been approved by members of the …

Local authorities need to be realistic about what their region can support if they want to attract retail development, a conference in London has heard.
Speakers in a session on retail at the Public Property Summit, run by PublicPropertyUK.com and Property Week, said that there was a gap between what the …

The government wants to see more public bodies working closely together and this will lead to more opportunities for the private sector, a Treasury minister said today.
Justine Greening, economic secretary at the Treasury, was making a speech at the Public Property Summit this morning. She said the government supported plans …

The government has invited London boroughs to bring forward plans for local enterprise partnerships to encourage investment in their areas.
In its regional growth white paper that came out this lunchtime, the government has invited London boroughs to propose local enterprise partnerships. These partnerships – a group of public sector and …

The government will introduce new primary legislation to implement tax increment financing (TIF), allowing local authorities to kick start developments by borrowing against future business rate increases.
As part of a white paper on local growth, published today, the government said it had started a review to decide how the TIF …

As property braces itself for the Comprehensive Spending Review, Nick Johnstone considers the repercussions of a “once-in-a-century” moment in government property policy.
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A scruffy 200,000 sq ft office block is about to come on to the market in Edinburgh. Its occupier, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), is cutting costs …