The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on the 11th March 2025 introduces measures in an attempt to speed up planning decisions to boost housebuilding and the delivery of vital developments like roads, railway lines and windfarms. The government aims to l boost economic growth, connectivity and energy security whilst also delivering for the environment, with this new Bill.
‘Biggest building boom’ in a generation through planning reforms – GOV.UK
This week, the Government issued its Plan for Neighbourhoods, a prospectus for tackling longstanding issues in some of the UK’s most deprived areas. The plan promises up to £20 million for each of the selected 75 neighbourhoods. This amounts to a significant injection of funds designed to rejuvenate physical infrastructure, repair fractured and mistrustful communities, and drive economic growth.
Overall, the plan is a welcome one. It promises significant investment totalling £1.5 billion over a 10-year timeframe. It also signals a welcome return to supporting the country’s most deprived communities, moving away from the sink-or-swim vision of localism witnessed since 2010.
A research participant described the challenges of privately owned land remaining vacant and becoming a hotspot for flytipping.
A research participant shared that “Miners have viewed the bunds as a way to divide and disassociate the community from the pit. They were very much against them.”
With a recent build of a large warehouse next to the colliery headstocks, in between the community of Stainforth and the heasttocks, the warehouse could be seen as a bund.
