Recommendation 15

The Government plans to abolish the Duty to Cooperate without clearly setting out what it will be replaced with. This is despite the Government having agreed with our recommendation in a previous report that the Duty to Cooperate should not be abolished without a clear understanding of how it will be replaced with a new mechanism. By abolishing the Duty to Cooperate, the Government is removing another incentive for local authorities to meet their local housing need. The Government should instead be encouraging neighbouring local authorities to cooperate on housing delivery, particularly when planning development on their shared borders.