Help us cut red tape!

As part of the Government's push to restore power to individuals, the Deputy Prime Minister has launched the 'Your Freedom' campaign. It is a public debate inviting ideas on burdensome laws and regulations which are considered unnecessary and infringe on civil liberties and make life hard for businesses.

In support of this, Communities and Local Government (CLG) invited local authorities, councils and professionals (such as architects, planners, surveyors and housing professionals/builders) to suggest what statutory guidance, secondary legislation and regulation should be removed.

How many responses has Cut Red Tape received? The Cut Red Tape exercise has been hugely successful. Over 700 responses containing more than 2000 ideas have been received!

What kinds of ideas have been submitted? These range from: simplifying the planning system getting rid of central governments targets issuing less prescriptive guidance using less acronyms and jargon in public documents reducing the regulations on holding street parades to make it less difficult and expensive for communities to hold festivals

What will happen with the ideas sent in? We're currently considering each and every idea sent in. Those that we can take forward will be announced in the autumn.

The ideas will help towards making localism a reality by:

helping us cut back red tape returning power back to communities creating an era of greater town hall transparency Is it too late to submit an idea to Cut Red Tape? This exercise has now closed. If you would like to submit your idea then please visit 'Your Freedom' public debate (see 'on other sites' right).

Here is a list of CLG secondary legislation being considered for revocation:

1. The Small Holdings and Allotments Regulations 1919 Remove. This required councils to get the consent of the CLG Secretary of State for certain actions in relation to allotment land, such as if they want to purchase allotment land or lease allotment land to an association or lease allotment land for more than a year at time. It is not considered that these regulations have effect any longer and this will help clean up the statute book.

2. The Council Tax (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 2009 Remove. End burden on local authorities to include efficiency savings on council tax bills and leaflets from 2011-12 onwards. The removal of the requirement will lead to a real reduction in the burdens on local authorities and their partners, and free them to explore more effective ways of sharing information with their citizens.

3. Tree preservation regulations: Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 1892; Statutory Instrument 2008 No.2260; Statutory Instrument 2008 No.3202 Simplify. We will consult on streamlining the approach to tree protection to reduce the administrative burden and creating a more equitable system. Aim is to consolidate three sets of regulations governing the making and management of tree preservation orders, reducing the complexity of the model order and producing a unified system which will apply to all tree preservation orders.

4. Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995/419 and 16 amendment orders Simplify. From October combine seventeen statutory instruments into one. This will greatly clarify the planning application system for local authorities, applicants, and other interested parties. The greater clarity provided will free-up valuable local planning authority officer time, which can be redirected towards more fruitful actives than wading through pages of amendments to secondary legislation.

5. Statutory guidance on local economic assessments – Local Democracy, Economic Development Construction Act April 2010 Remove. End statutory guidance on local economic assessments which will free up local authorities to decide locally how they monitor their local economy.

6. Statutory guidance on Multi Area Agreements with duties – Local Democracy, Economic Development Construction Act April 2010 Remove. Will not issue the final guidance on Multi Area Agreements with duties as planned by the previous Administration. No partnerships have taken up MAA duties and given the Coalition Government's focus on local enterprise partnerships we are not expecting any to partnerships to do so in the future, so there is no need for final guidance.

7. Building Regulations Statutory Instrument 2531/2000; Approved Inspector Regs; Statutory Instrument 2532/2000; plus c18 sets of amending regulations Simplify. Reduce 18 separate pieces of building regulations into 2 will cut the administrative burdens on both business and local authorities. This will simplify their use for those that deal with these regulations such as professional and building control bodies and builders.

8. Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations 1999 No.293 and amending regulations Simplify. Consult on changes to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations to reflect recent EIA case-law and to ensure the regulations remain fit for purpose and more accessible to users.

9. Fire Protection measures in Local Acts Remove. Consult on local fire protection requirements to see if they are still required. There are a number of local fire protection requirements relating to commercial buildings that the evidence shows don’t actually increase safety but are a burden to industry.

10. Special Management Interim Orders - Housing Act 2004 Remove. Consult on the removal of Special Interim Management orders which gives local authorities the power to take over the management of a privately rented property which is associated with significant and persistent anti social behaviour. The power is not well understood and has never been used.

11. Requirement on social landlords to provide tenants with information on costs and responsibilities of home ownerships - Housing (Right to Buy) (Information to Secure Tenants) (England) Order 2005. Remove. End the requirement placed on social landlords to provide tenants with information on costs and responsibilities of home ownership. There is already a separate legislative obligation on social landlords to provide specific information to tenants who wish to purchase their home under the Right to Buy scheme. We will remove the additional requirement when we are confident that no tenant will be adversely affected. Removing this requirement will reduce the administrative burden on local authorities.

go to http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/about/helpcutredtape/ for more information

Source of this Article:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/about/helpcutredtape/ (opens a new window)

By Sara Wraight

Posted: Friday 3 September 2010

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