In July the housing secretary Michael Gove outlined his “long-term housing strategy”, which included a consultation on local planning reforms. 

He set out a proposal to make local planning “simpler, shorter and more visual, to show communities more clearly what is planned so that they can engage more effectively.”

The idea is to “help speed up new developments, put power in the hands of local communities to build their own homes, and unlock planning decisions.”

He also pledged a new fund of £24m to scale up local planning capacity, and an additional £13.5m for a new “super-squad” of experts to support large scale development projects.