Councillor Philip Mynott, Chair of Planning at Brentwood Borough Council, said: “The government published a new National Planning Policy Framework yesterday that sets out the planning policy which local authorities are required to follow. The government has set out that it wishes to significantly increase housing numbers and has given each local planning authority a new mandatory housing target which it must meet in their updated Local Plans. For Brentwood, this has increased the housing requirement still further to 724 new homes per year
“Like other local authorities, back in September, we submitted our response to the government’s consultation on their proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework. We will carefully review what has been released this week.
"At the same time, we expect further changes to the planning system to be announced in the New Year, alongside others also announced recently.”