Residents in Gedling borough will be allowed to hold referendums over the style and size of extensions, new homes and conversions on their street under plans outlined in the Queen’s Speech yesterday.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will allow ‘street votes’ where most loft conversions, conservatories and extensions can be built without full planning permission as long as a third of neighbours don’t object.
Ministers hope this will encourage more intensive development by allowing residents to increase the value of their own homes.
There will also be a raid on big developers’ profits to help fund schools, roads and surgeries.
The new street votes policy has been dismissed a gimmick designed to win over disenchanted Tory voters, but loyalists say it will ‘mean local residents can’t have unwanted development thrust down their throats’.
Housing secretary Michael Gove confirmed the new levelling up bill will include a proposal for ‘street votes’ aimed at ensuring local support for ‘gentle densification’ of housing.
Mr Gove said: “We will make sure that through local democratic ballots, sometimes street by street, we can have the enhancement that we need to see the additional homes being built.
“In a way that leads to what the experts call ‘gentle densification’, but what you or I would just recognise as simply building in tune with what’s already there.”
The purpose of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill is to take power out of the hands of developers and councils and give it to homeowners.
It will mean people will be able to decide if they want more development on brownfield sites in their local areas.
The layout of new developments, the facades of buildings or the materials to be used would also be decided by locals.
They will also be able to determine how levies on developers are spent so they can be directed towards building new homes or schools.
Under the Street Votes scheme, if a two-thirds ‘super-majority’ of residents agree to support a plan, it could go ahead.
Any development would have to be in keeping with the design styles favoured locally, and strict limits will prevent development from impacting neighbouring streets.
Other measures include the ability to make the pavement cafes which sprang up during the Covid-19 pandemic a permanent part of the town centre landscape.
Under the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill measures to revive England’s high streets, councils will be given powers to take control of buildings for the benefit of their communities.
