It will be two years before planning reforms published last summer are brought in, the government’s chief planner said last week. The announcement raises questions over whether new stripped-down local plans will be in place before the end of the parliament.

Housing ministry chief planner Joanna Averley told an event hosted by countryside charity CPRE on Thursday that the government intends to bring forward a planning bill before the end of 2021 to deliver its reforms, but that it would be a “couple of years” before the system was in place.

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