Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's Budget has put an end to targets for use of brownfield land and indicated that land remediation relief will go too, although not until after next year.
The relief was one of a large number of tax reliefs recommended for abolition by the Office of Tax Simplification in March 2011.
Mr Osborne's Budget announced some would be abolished this year, some in the 2012 Finance Bill and others, including land remediation relief, after 2012.
"This Budget at a stroke removes over 100 pages from our tax code and begins the work of simplification," said Mr Osborne.
Having announced the abolition of an incentive to develop, Mr Osborne announced plans to encourage development by degrading the planning system.
He claimed councils are spending 13% more on planning permissions than they did five years ago despite a one-third drop in applications.
"We are going to tackle what every government has identified as a chronic obstacle to economic growth in Britain, and no government has done anything about: the planning system," he said.
He said local communities should have a greater say in planning, but he proposed four measures with immediate effect:-
- all bodies involved in planning must prioritise growth and jobs;
- a new presumption in favour of sustainable development, so the default answer to development is "yes";
- retention of existing green belt controls;
- removal of national targets on use of previously developed land;
- changes in certain use classes, new time limits on applications and pilots of auctions of planning permission on land.
"Cumbersome planning rules and bad regulation stand in the way of new jobs," said the chancellor.
But despite this onslaught on environmental protection, Mr Osborne presented his Budget's "green energy revolution" and its plans for a green investment bank.
He said he wants to create an investing, exporting, greener, more balanced economy.
