This year’s #QueensSpeech, which took place with less than a year to go until the next General Election, is one of the lightest in a generation.
Despite this and the fact pension reform may have been identified by the Coalition partners as the centrepiece, there was nevertheless plenty of interest for the property industry here. In their forward to the Government’s briefing document Messrs Cameron and Clegg flag the benefits of the proposed Infrastructure Bill, namely supporting the development of energy resources (including shale gas), helping sell unused public land for house building and backing delivery of zero carbon homes (in fact more exemptions are proposed).
Steps to allow certain types of planning condition to be discharged to promote delivery, a commitment to introduce secondary legislation to create ‘locally-led’ garden cities and to provide development finance for small housebuilders also stand out.