The Plain English guide to planning for free schools, published today, aims to make clear the steps anyone looking to set up a free school in their area needs to take.
It sets out the stages of the planning process and the role of government quango the Education Funding Agency in helping to secure premises and obtaining planning permission.
It also explains what alterations can be made to free school premises under permitted development rights.
The accompanying guide to the planning system is intended to offer a "quick and easy explanation" of how the system works, how local and neighbourhood plans are written and adopted and how to go about obtaining planning permission.
Lewis said the guide was part of goverment policy to reverse the "system of top-down targets" and "put people back in control", and the guide gives "all the information anyone would need to get involved in the local decision-making process".
