For planning practitioners, last month's Queen's Speech was as notable for what it omitted as for what it included. The Queen's Speech, which sets out the government's legislative agenda for the forthcoming Parliamentary session, pledged that the government would bring forward proposals to "help ensure more homes are built".

But a government briefing note issued alongside the speech included housing only under a list of "non-legislative measures" for the forthcoming session, raising a question mark over the future of elements of the recent Housing White Paper that were anticipated to require primary legislation. However, observers pointed out that much of the government's programme should nevertheless be able to progress through changes not requiring primary legislation.

Among the anticipated white paper reforms which would require primary legislation that were missing from the Queen's Speech were proposals to reform the compulsory purchase order (CPO) regime and to amend the process for issuing completion orders, both of which were mooted in the document to help councils use these tools to deliver more housing.

The white paper had promised to consult on new CPO guidance for local planning authorities to help them to ensure that stalled sites are built out. But Planning Officers Society (POS) chair Mike Kiely said further legislation would be needed to complement changes made to the compulsory purchase process by the Housing and Planning Act and the Neighbourhood Planning Act. "With the current powers, we are not confident about compulsorily purchasing stalled housing sites," he said.

Duncan Field, partner at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, added that some of the aspirations for locally-led new town development corporations alluded to in the white paper would require legislation beyond the scope of the Neighbourhood Planning Act. "This suggests to me that government had in mind other changes to the New Towns Act as well," he said, citing measures such as improving the accountability of corporations and bringing forward land value capture models as changes which would have required further legislation.

However, Field added that "relatively isolated changes", such as the amendment to the New Towns Act and amendments to completion notices and CPO compensation, "might be slipped into other bills" going through Parliament. "This occasionally happens where reforms are not so extensive as to require their own piece of legislation," he said. The inclusion of housing in the non-legislative measures section of the briefing note reflects the fact that much of the government's programme can progress through changes not requiring primary legislation, observers said.

Clive Betts MP, who was chair of the Commons' communities and local government (CLG) committee prior to the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the snap general election, said many of the elements of the government's programme involved "measures that would be happening anyway". He added that measures in the white paper, such as the proposed standard methodology for assessing housing need, could be brought forward through changes in policy and guidance.

Claire Dutch, partner at law firm Hogan Lovells, said most of the white paper's proposals would involve "tinkering of the wording of the National Planning Policy Framework". Field agreed that many proposals could be brought forward "without the involvement of Parliament", although he added that such proposals would be likely to be subject to consultation and potential scrutiny by the CLG select committee. "As long as the new ministerial team at the Department for Communities and Local Government and Treasury continue to give housing the priority it has had over the past two years, we should see these proposals coming forward before the end of the year," he predicted.

Catriona Riddell, strategic planning convenor for POS, said that many measures in the Housing White Paper would require new regulations. Such changes could include the requirement for councils to submit information as part of the housing delivery test and new rules for local plan examinations, such as statements of common ground and revised requirements for the amount of evidence and consultation required, she said. Some observers therefore forecast that the main impediment to delivering the proposals would not necessarily be political opposition as much as the scarcity of parliamentary time and capacity due to the huge volume of Brexit-related work coming up. "The feedback we've had is that nearly 1,000 pieces of delegated legislation are needed just to get us to the implementation of the Great Repeal Bill", Betts said.

But Field said that statutory instruments - the mechanisms which bring forward new secondary legislation such as regulations - only involve "a limited role" for the House of Commons and Lords. "Statutory instruments are either affirmative and require the express approval of both Houses, or negative so that they can become law without any debate or vote," he said. "When dealing with either form of statutory instrument, both Houses can only accept or reject it - they cannot amend it. This tends to mean that statutory instruments individually require little parliamentary time."

Another anticipated piece of primary legislation omitted from the Queen's Speech was a plan in the Conservative Party manifesto to reform the planning system for fracking proposals. The proposals envisaged making the drilling for shale gas permitted development and bringing some fracking proposals under the nationally significant infrastructure projects regime. Dutch said it was a "little bit disappointing" that the government was "trying to avoid the really contentious proposals". But she said the omission would not have a significant impact on the industry. "There has been nothing coming out of the government to indicate that they are doing a u-turn in their support for shale gas", she said. "So one can assume that the industry can plough on and continue with the policy support for shale gas."

Source: Planning Resource