More people will be able to own their own home by extending Right to Buy level discounts to housing association tenants and the Act places a duty on local planning authorities to actively promote the development of Starter Homes and include them in the planning system.

The Act also aims to unlock brownfield land to provide homes faster by requiring local authorities to prepare and maintain local registers of specified land and increase the number of custom-built and self-built homes to 2000 by 2020, a target which doubles the current delivery. Furthermore there will be a reform in the compulsory purchase process to make it clearer and faster as well as a simplification of the neighbourhood planning process.

The government states that the Act “will give housebuilders and decision-makers the tools and confidence to provide more homes and further streamline the planning system to accelerate their delivery”.