What does 2024 hold for policy changes in the built environment?
With ever-increasing pressures on the natural environment and ongoing changes to our climate, as well as the rapid emergence of highly-capable digital technologies, it’s not an exaggeration to say that at the start of 2024, the future of our industry feels somewhat uncertain.
Biodiversity net gain
Naturally, the UK’s built environment sector is evolving to meet society’s changing priorities, and on 12 February, long-anticipated biodiversity net gain regulations will come into force, introducing a new metric for measuring the sustainability of proposed developments.
Biodiversity net gain legislation, or BNG as it has become colloquially known within the industry, seeks to ensure that all new developments are contributing positively to the biodiversity of the local environment. Going forward, applications will only be approved subject to providing evidence of a positive impact on local biodiversity, or where this is not possible, where the impact can be ‘offset’.
According to a Harvard University paper from last year, the new regulations represent the ‘most ambitious biodiversity policy in the world’. It’s therefore no surprise that the breadth and depth of the changes have shaken the industry somewhat and although developers can see the value of this new environmental legislation, in real terms, it means a period of uncertainty as businesses continue to adapt their ways of working and get used to the new practices. In fact, in the latter part of last year, the RTPI published some data which showed that overall, planners were not as prepared for the new regulations as might be desired.
Industry bodies have continued to spend recent months preparing for the upcoming changes using necessary online tools provided by trusted experts such as Joe’s Blooms, who offer a comprehensive service to help applicants understand and meet BNG requirements first time.
Overall, we see the new regulations as a positive step in encouraging more sustainable industry practices and in holding our sector accountable for its impact on the environment. Visit our blog to find out more about what Planning Portal are doing around biodiversity net gain.
Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act
At the end of last year, the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act (LURA) came into force. The act was generally positively received by the industry and we are now awaiting a wave of secondary legislation to implement the changes and allow the sector to better understand them. This includes:
- Environmental Outcome Reports, which will replace the Environmental Impact Assessments.
- The ‘test and learn’ phase of the New Infrastructure Levy, which is expected to begin later in the year.
- There will be a new route to planning permission, the ‘Street Vote Development Order’ coming into force this year. This new order will allow residents to suggest the changes they’d like to see in their areas.
- Increased protection for heritage sites and scheduled monuments – meaning developers will likely have to engage in more comprehensive impact assessments and collaborate more closely with authorities when working with or around these areas, potentially altering timelines and costs to relevant projects.
Permitted development
Changes to permitted development are also expected throughout 2024, with the aim of increasing housing supply and helping businesses.
These are likely to include improved rights for change-of-use to dwellinghouses, improved rights for development on agricultural units, improved rights for the erection, extension or alteration of schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and prisons and other non-domestic extensions and new permitted development rights for short-term lets. These changes have the potential to move the goalposts for big-impact projects significantly and really benefit local communities.
Of course, since we are expecting a general election to be called in the latter half of 2024, there is huge potential for further changes in legislative priorities within the built environment sphere. In fact, the turbulence bought about by a general election and the potential change this poses for all areas of UK industry, is noteworthy.
Planning Portal improvements and updates
Our service will continue to provide the backbone of the planning and wider built environment sector throughout 2024, and as such we are acutely aware of the need to keep it as optimised and user-friendly as possible.
With this in mind, we have an ongoing programme of service improvements lined up as well as a number of larger projects in our pipeline for this year.
Perhaps the most notable of these will see us integrate our building control application service into our current planning application platform.
This development will allow users to submit planning applications and building control applications in one place for the first time, easily transferring key project details between applications and streamlining the process for both applicants and authorities.
It’s an innovation we’ve had planned for a while – we are really excited to finally bring it to the industry, and once introduced, we know the update will have a hugely positive impact on the working practices of so many of our sector’s key stakeholders.
We also intend to begin discovery work around the digital forms which are currently missing from our online application service, including pre-application forms and minerals forms, with a view of integrating these when possible – so stay tuned for more news on this.
And finally, we are pleased to announce that we will be launching a fully-comprehensive hub of sustainability-focused content during the first part of this year.
We continue to provide a vital service to the built environment sector and as such, we know we have a responsibility to promote and support sustainable practices as much as we can. This new sustainability hub will be a user-friendly one-stop-shop for all sustainability news and information, tailored to meet the needs of both homeowners and industry professionals.
Expect to find information on sustainability legislation, guidance on the funding that is available for various sustainability projects, practical advice for optimising the sustainability of all sorts of common building and regeneration projects, and up-to-date sustainability news from across the built environment industries.
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