Hunt has promised to improve planning application speed, introduce permitted development right and invest in nutrient mitigation schemes to develop more homes.

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The key points of the Statement include plans to:

• introduce premium planning services across England with guaranteed accelerated decision dates for major applications and fee refunds wherever these are not met
• commit £110m available through the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund to support LPAs in delivering high-quality local nutrient offsetting schemes, unlocking up to 40,000 homes over the next five years
• provide £5m to incentivise greater use of local development orders in England, to end delays for businesses so that commercial projects secure planning permission faster
• invest an additional £32m across housing and planning to unlock thousands of homes across the country
• invest £5m in additional funding for DLUHC’s Planning Skills Delivery Fund so that LPAs can target development application backlogs
• introduce a consultation on a new permitted development right (PDR) which allows homeowners to subdivide homes into two flats without changing the exterior, to be implemented in 2024
• extend the existing Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme by £3bn to help it deliver 20,000 new homes, in addition to improving the quality and efficiency of thousands more 
• provide £3m for a range of measures to improve the homebuying and selling process
• raise Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024 to benefit 1.6 million low-income households — which is expected to result in savings of approximately £800 a year in 2024-25
• reduce employee national insurance tax from 12% to 10% — a £450 yearly tax cut for the average person earning £35,400, to be implemented from January 2024