The government has unveiled a further package of radical planning reforms as part of a wide-ranging Productivity Plan drawn up by the Treasury and Chancellor George Osborne.
The planning measures include a threat of direct intervention by the Secretary of State over the production of local plans where local authorities are judged to be too slow and the creation of a zonal system for brownfield land involving automatic permission for housing.
In addition, ministers want a tighter planning performance regime which would mean local authorities would be judged to be underperforming if 50 per cent or fewer decisions meet statutory timetables or who fail to process minor applications in line with a significantly tighter “planning guarantee”.
Also planned is legislation to allow major infrastructure projects with an element of housing to be considered as part of the Planning Act 2008 regime and treated as nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).
The government has announced it is scrapping the requirement on new-home developers to offset new-build carbon emissions by making a contribution to carbon reduction elsewhere.
In addition the administration is proposing to extend permitted development rights to taller mobile masts in both protected and non-protected areas in England. A call for evidence on these proposals has been published.
The Productivity Plan also confirms last week’s budget promise of a new roads fund created from all the Vehicle Excise Duty paid on cars registered from April 2017.
This fund will be invested directly in the strategic road network. A second multi-billion pound Road Investment Programme will be published for the period after 2020 before the end of the present parliament.
There has been a mixed response to the proposals, but significantly a similar reaction from planners, developers and local authorities that many of the new measures will only work if the government addresses the severe shortage of funds within local authority planning departments.
Roger Milne
Councils that fail to agree a local plan could face direct government intervention under new reforms just proposed.
Over the summer recess, the government will set a deadline by which time local authorities will be expected to have local plans in place, after which the Secretary of State will have the power “to arrange for a local plan to be written, in consultation with residents”. The government also intends to produce league tables of local authorities ranked by their progress in developing their local plans.
Ministers have committed to making local plans “more responsive to local needs”. Significant streamlining of the length and process of local plan-making is promised along with strengthened guidance on the duty on local planning authorities to cooperate on key housing and planning issues. More detail is due in the autumn.
In a further bid to boost house building the government will legislate to grant automatic planning permission for housing on suitable brownfield sites identified on the new statutory registers of such sites (subject to a limited number of technical details).
The government will also consider how policy can support higher density housing around key commuter hubs. One option under consideration would mean mayors in London and across the country could use new powers under the Devolution Bill to use development corporations to deliver higher density housing in designated areas’.
Also promised are additional compulsory purchase reforms to further modernise the system, already undergoing major changes. Details will be announced in the autumn. “These will allow local authorities and others to drive forward and shape brownfield development, but will not alter the principle of Secretary of State sign-off on CPOs”.
Roger Milne
The latest package of reforms includes a series of measures designed to improve planning decision –making as well as moves to devolve planning powers, particularly in the capital.
Ministers will:
- Legislate to allow major infrastructure projects with an element of housing to apply through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Regime (NSIP)
- Tighten the planning performance regime, so that local authorities making 50 per cent or fewer of decisions on time are at risk of designation
- Legislate to extend the performance regime to minor applications, so that local authorities processing those applications too slowly are at risk of designation
- Introduce a fast-track certificate process for establishing the principle of development for minor development proposals, and significantly tighten the ‘planning guarantee’ for minor applications
- Introduce a dispute resolution mechanism for section 106 agreements, to speed up negotiations and allow housing starts to proceed more quickly.
Ministers have announced that the government does not intend to proceed with the zero carbon Allowable Solutions carbon offsetting scheme for new homes, or the proposed 2016 increase in on-site energy efficiency standards.
Instead it “will keep energy efficiency standards under review, recognising that existing measures to increase energy efficiency of new buildings should be allowed time to become established”.
Environmental groups are incensed at this U-turn while builders and developers have voiced concern that this move was “short sighted” and created “uncertainty”.
Ministers have promised the devolution of greater planning powers to mayors and combined authorities as well as giving the forthcoming mayor of Manchester the power to create Development Corporations and to promote CPOs.
In London, the mayor will be handed new powers to call in planning applications of 50 homes or more and to increase the density of housing by removing the need for planning permission for upwards extensions up to the height of existing buildings.
Local authorities will be required to “proactively” plan for the delivery of Starter Homes and guidance will strengthen the presumption in favour of Starter Home developments, which it has been confirmed, will be exempted from s106 contributions.
Roger Milne
Cherwell District Council has announced proposals for the UK’s first large-scale Local Development Order for custom-built housing development.
This initiative would cover proposals for the Graven Hill site in Oxfordshire which has been earmarked for the UK’s biggest-ever custom-build scheme of around 1,900 housing units.
If adopted, the LDO would remove the need for self-builders to submit individual planning applications for each plot provided proposals comply with pre-determined building specifications.
Councillor Michael Gibbard, Cherwell’s lead member for planning, said: “This is the first time an LDO has been considered for a self-build development of this size so we are setting the benchmark for the future.
“Although we want self-builders to have the freedom to design and create their own homes at Graven Hill, we don’t want it to become a free-for-all – we need to retain some control.
“However, if our planners were to consider up to 1,900 individual applications, plus retrospective submissions, it would place a huge demand on their services and slow the planning process down for everyone – not just those associated with Graven Hill.
“The Local Development Order is a happy compromise, it allows us to set the relevant guidelines such as the maximum height, depth and building materials etc while giving self-builders the freedom to interpret those specifications to their own style without having to wait to receive individual planning consent.”
The first phase of the overall development is expected to involve some 699 properties, but the first LDO will be piloted for a smaller area of between 100 and 200 homes.
View more information on the development
Roger Milne
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has dismissed an appeal by Lugano Developments Ltd who wanted to build a garden suburb involving up to 280 dwellings and a community farm on 82 hectares of land at Birney Hill Farm.
The farm is located just over two kilometres from the built up edge of Newcastle upon Tyne near the city’s international airport and next to the existing suburb of Darras Hall.
The scheme was earmarked for green belt land and the outline application included proposals to demolish some existing buildings.
The scheme had been rejected by Northumberland County Council and was recommended for refusal by the inspector who held the recovered appeal inquiry.
Clark agreed with the planning inspector that the benefits of an “exemplar” garden suburb and a scheme offering both affordable and executive housing, where there was an absence of a five-year supply of housing land, was insufficient to outweigh the harm the scheme posed to green belt policy.
The proposed development was not considered to be sustainable because of the lack of connectivity with Darras Hall and the impact of noise from aircraft taking off and landing at the airport.
Clark’s decision letter concluded: “The very special circumstances necessary to justify a grant of planning permission for inappropriate development in the green belt do not exist.”
Roger Milne
Retail applications continue to fall
The number of applications to build new retail space in England has fallen for a sixth year in a row, according to latest research by commercial law firm EMW.
This showed there were 7,360 planning applications approved for retail premises in 2014/15, down from 7,420 last year and down 38 per cent from 11,900 at the peak in the expansion of the retail sector in 2008/09.
EMW said that there has been a shift of focus away from expanding store portfolios to a more concerted effort by many retailers to compete with their online rivals by introducing new services such as “Click and Collect”.
Giles Ferin, Principal at EMW, explained “The fall in retail applications reflects a seismic change in shopping habits.”
“High street retailers are opting to provide a greater range of online services as they try to adjust to this more competitive online market.”
EMW added that the changing nature of the retail sector has resulted in many premises being converted to office or residential use. There were 410 units converted from retail to residential use in 2014/15.
Pembrokeshire “hobbit house” wins appeal
The couple who built a “hobbit-style” roundhouse in Pembrokeshire without planning permission have finally saved their eco-friendly dwelling from the threat of demolition.
This week a planning inspector allowed their appeal against Pembrokeshire Council’s refusal of retrospective planning permission for the building constructed from straw bales and other natural material.
The inspector decided that the building was acceptable because it satisfied the Welsh Government’s policy on so-called One Planet Development.
The building has been the focus of a long drawn-out planning wrangle involving refused permissions, enforcement action and legal action.
View more information on the One Planet Development policy
Chippenham growth
Wiltshire Council’s cabinet met this week to approve proposed amendments to the Chippenham Site Allocations Plan which outlines proposed strategic sites to ensure the delivery of housing and employment growth for the town by 2026 in line with the requirement of the Wiltshire Core Strategy.
The plan allocates 2,500 new homes and approximately 28 hectares of employment activity in three mixed use developments on the edge of the town.
The proposed developments include substantial country parks focused on the river corridor, the completion of an eastern link road between the A350 to the north and the A4 to the south of Chippenham and new primary schools.
London round-up
- Architects Allies & Morrision has revealed plans for up to 1,000 flats and a new campus for the London College of Communication on the site of the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre. The new plans have gone on public display 18-months after the 50-year-old south London shopping centre was sold by developer St Modwen to current owners, property investor Delancey and pension fund APG, for £80m. Under the latest proposals, the shopping centre will retain its ‘retail heart’ with a ‘three-tiered open area’ forming part of a new town centre. A 36-storey tower will anchor the southern edge of the site and new east-west links will open up the development and link the public space to the railway station.
- Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis have officially launched the London Land Commission. Real estate research firm Savills has been appointed to compile the preliminary stages of a so-called‘Domesday Book’ of all brown field public land in London, to be completed by the end of 2015.
- Residents of Fortune Green and West Hampstead have voted in favour of a neighbourhood plan for their wards following a referendum held last week by Camden Council. The referendum was only the second of its kind yet held in the capital.
- Wandsworth Council has launched an investigation into the unauthorised demolition of a landmark Victorian-era public house in Battersea and could order the developer responsible for its disappearance to rebuild it brick by brick.
Report says LEPs need staff and clearer status
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) could play a critical role in devolution to cities and regions and in promoting economic growth, but their potential is being held back by their unclear status and unfamiliarity with town planning, as well as a lack of personnel, a new study by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has concluded.
The first comprehensive analysis of the roles of all LEPs showed that they have considerable potential to work across different policy areas such as planning, and to shape strategy and implementation from housing to employment across local authority boundaries.
But the analysis by the RTPI highlighted that LEPs operated with an opaque remit and lacked firm institutional foundations. This limited their effectiveness as brokers of cross-boundary, strategic planning issues, the report found.
West of England councils urge devolution
Council leaders across a West of England sub-region have agreed to work up a case for more powers from Whitehall under the government’s devolution agenda.
At a meeting of the region’s Strategic Leaders’ Board last Friday, the Mayor of Bristol and Leaders of Bath and North East Somerset Council, North Somerset Council and South Gloucestershire Council agreed that a governance review should be the next step as the partners look together at developing a detailed local case for devolved powers.
A Strategic Review of Governance is a formal process looking at the governance structures that would best fit the devolution of certain functions to the four authorities. It is not a review of governance arrangements of the four local authorities. The review is expected to take between nine and 18 months.
New salt marsh project makes waves
Sea defences on an island off the Essex coast have been deliberately breached to create new habitat for wildlife. It is the latest phase of the Wallasea Island Wild Coast project, which aims to create salt marsh on 670 hectares of former farm land.
The RSPB, the UK’s biggest wildlife charity, is behind the scheme, which has been helped by the London Crossrail project which has provided soil excavated from its tunnelling work under the capital. The aim is to attract wading birds, seals and plants such as samphire.
View more information about the Wallasea Island Wild Coast project
Solent waterfront scheme
Proposals for a multi-million pound revamp of part of Southampton’s waterfront have been unveiled for public scrutiny.
The Royal Pier Waterfront development includes plans for 730 flats, restaurants, up to 50 shops and a 250-bed hotel.
It would also involve a casino, which has been granted a licence by the government for up to 150 slot machines and 30 blackjack and poker tables.
The scheme would see an enlarged Mayflower Park with a new larger than life-size Spitfire sculpture in the city where the plane was first built.
The waterfront proposals have been drawn up by RPW (Southampton) Limited, Southampton City Council’s development partner for the scheme.
Liverpool Chinatown revamp
Developer North Point Global and BLOK Architecture’s plans for the regeneration of part of Liverpool’s historic Chinatown quarter have gone on show on Merseyside.
The project has a £200m price tag and would involve development along the frontage of Great George Street. The concept is for a new urban quarter comprising up to 1,000 homes and 18,580 sq metres of new commercial and retail space. One of the elements is a Chinese themed retail area as well as a substantial number of live-work spaces providing accommodation for new Chinese businesses to set-up in the city.
Although the proposals are at an early stage, the developers are hoping to submit a planning application for the first phase of the project before the end of the summer.
Green belt helicopter base project
Plans to build a new helicopter base on green belt land have been backed by South Gloucestershire Council. Approval for the base near the M4/M5 interchange at Almondsbury is conditional on government ministers deciding not to intervene.
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) and Great Western Air Ambulance Charity welcomed the decision and hoped for a “positive outcome” from the government. Critics said the new base would “destroy the rural character” of the village.
The proposals include a hangar, car park, Met Office weather station and new access to the A38. The NPAS and Great Western Air Ambulance are currently both based at Filton Airfield which is to be redeveloped.
Capita snaps up GL Hearn
Business services and out-sourcing specialist Capita has announced it has acquired GL Hearn, a leading UK property and planning consultancy for £25m.
GL Hearn’s client list includes some of the UK’s largest retailers and developers, as well as a number of blue chip companies. The consultancy reported an operating profit of £5.8m on turnover of £31.2m in its last financial year up to 31 May 2015.
The company is a market leader in planning, development and regeneration. It employs over 250 staff, and has a head office in London and seven regional offices including Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton.
Peers probe built environment
The new House of Lords Committee on National Policy for the Built Environment has begun taking oral evidence for its first inquiry. Last week the peers quizzed experts specialising in planning and design.
They included Professor Rachel Cooper OBE, Professor of Design Management, Lancaster University; Dr Richard Simmons, former Chief Executive of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and Professor Mark Tewdwr-Jones, Professor of Town Planning, at Newcastle University.
The committee is considering the legacy of the last 30 years of commercial and residential developments and whether there should be a greater focus on retrofitting than new-build. The peers are also keen to find out why the UK is so poor at meeting house-building targets.
Legal round-up
- A High Court judge has quashed the decision of Ryedale District Council to allow a new supermarket and petrol station at Malton’s Wentworth Street Car Park. The court ruled that members of the planning committee had been misled because they had not been informed of the benefits of rival store proposals.
- A £500m energy from waste project looks set to be built near Gloucester now Stroud District Council’s legal challenge over the planning inspector’s recommendation to the then Community Secretary Eric Pickles to approve the controversial facility has failed. Plans for the scheme at Javelin Park were approved by the then Secretary of State, following a public inquiry. Stroud District Council had hoped to persuade the High Court the planning inspector had “made errors”. The judge disagreed.
- A High Court judge has ruled that high street giant Sainsbury’s had the right to withdraw from an agreement to redevelop Bristol Rovers’ memorial Stadium after the club was unable to obtain an “acceptable” planning permission for the scheme.
Dorset coastal path route proposed
Proposals for a further section of Dorset’s Jurassic coastline to form part of the England Coast Path have been revealed by Natural England (NE). NE wants to develop a new route along a 67 kilometre long stretch of the coast between Lyme Regis and Rufus Castle.
The path would join up with the section between Rufus Castle and Lulworth Cove where work is currently underway.
Kent theme park land deal
Developers behind the proposed £2bn Paramount Park theme park have bought seven hectares of land in North Kent.
A former landfill site, known as Bamber Pit, and a sports ground on the Swanscombe Peninsula have been purchased by London Resort Company Holdings.
The theme park, proposed for 400 hectares of land near Dartford, is due to be the subject of an application for a Development Consent Order, the first project of its type to be a candidate for treatment as a nationally significant infrastructure project under the Planning Act 2008 regime.
Norfolk local plan examination held up over habitat issues
The examination of the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk’s local plan has been adjourned following concern voiced by the planning inspector over flood risk and habitat issues surrounding housing site allocations.
The Inspector needs reassurance that either mitigation can be provided at the new housing sites where required or that the council has a fall-back position in the event that mitigation cannot be successfully achieved.
The planning authority expects to take three months providing further information and will work with the Environment Agency, the Internal Drainage Board and conservation groups like the RSPB and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.
Dorset dig finds pre-Roman settlement
A pre-Roman town of 150 roundhouses has been found by university students during an archaeological dig in Dorset.
The discovery of the town lying along a hill-slope near Winterborne Kingston has been described as “extremely significant” by archaeologists who said that what had been found was “one of the earliest and largest open settlements in Britain.”
Roger Milne
When we refresh our website in the Autumn we’re also going to take the opportunity to refresh our Buy-a-Map service, which many customers use to buy site location plans for their planning applications.
I emailed many potential partners last week, but if I missed you and you are interested in applying to be a partner please get in touch.
This would be a commercial relationship, but the selection is primarily based on technical and quality standards.
I was lucky enough to be at the excellent RTPI Planning Convention in London on Tuesday this week.
As always, it was interesting to hear different perspectives on the future of planning. One particularly useful session was a discussion on the future of neighbourhood planning called Getting Real About Localism.
Among others, senior Planning Aid England advisor John Romanski gave a very interesting talk about this and the advice, guidance and support they provide to local communities to create neighbourhood plans.
One he highlighted was Lawrence Weston in Bristol, who had created a video that sets out what they wanted to achieve.
It’s very nicely done and uses an engaging medium to explain neighbourhood development plans to the community. Watch the video on their website.
Another point he stressed was that neighbourhood plans are not only for affluent areas of the country but for everyone.
Finally, while we’re talking about neighbourhood plans, it’s worth mentioning again the crowd-sourced map developed by our friends at Boilerhouse Media.
Chancellor George Osborne promised a further raft of planning reforms when he delivered his summer budget this week, but exactly what will not be unveiled until Friday 10 July.
In his budget speech Osborne insisted the administration remained wedded to the development of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’. He confirmed new powers for the new elected mayor of Greater Manchester and the creation of city-wide land commission.
He committed £30m to establish Transport for the North as a statutory body with statutory responsibilities.
Osborne launched a transport devolution package for the North which will include working on an Oyster-style smart and integrated ticketing system across bus, tram metro and rail services covering the North’s mayor-led city regions.
Osborne said the government was working towards further devolution deals with the Sheffield City region, Liverpool City region and Leeds, West Yorkshire and partner authorities.
A devolution deal is also progressing involving Cornwall and there are ambitious proposals for a “strong and coherent” West Midlands combined authority and proposals for two from East Midland authorities.
The Chancellor announced the government would invite bids for a new round of Enterprise Zones. It has pledged continuing support – and a further £90m – to help coastal areas via the Coastal Communities Fund which will carry on until 2020. The administration has published a discussion paper on regional airports.
In addition, the government has promised to introduce a “new approach” to station redevelopment and commercial land sales on the rail network building on the experience of regenerating land around Kings Cross Station and Stratford in east London.
Ministers will establish a dedicated body to focus on “pursuing opportunities to realise value from public land and property assets in the rail network to both maximise the benefit to local communities and reduce the burden of public debt”.
Roger Milne
Strong financial incentives are needed to coordinate planning and land use strategically across council boundaries with ‘meaningful penalties’ for councils which fail to do so, according to a new report on how cities could transform house-building performance.
That’s the headline conclusion of the ‘Growing Cities’ publication produced by think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research and housing charity Shelter, which argues that drastic action is needed to tackle the urban housing crisis.
The authors looked at Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and York and concluded that councils within city-regions “should be strongly incentivised to work closely together to co-ordinate building more homes”.
The report argued that strategic planning powers and budgets should be devolved to cities and resources such as public land should be pooled and coordinated across boundaries. However, councils “which block growth or refuse to co-operate” should face financial penalties.
Once all other options are exhausted, “there should be the ultimate backstop of a boundary review to incentivise working together effectively” argued the report.
The report made the case for the creation of city-wide, independent Local Homes Agencies with devolved powers to unblock stalled developments, negotiate with landowners and work with the private sector to put together new regeneration and urban extension projects. Cities should be able to tax land with planning permission which is being held back from development or built on very slowly.
The report also called for the creation of New Homes Zones, where cities would set basic terms of development and hold competitions for the best master plan ideas.
In addition, the report called for green belt reviews which would identify low public value land close to transport links and suitable for growth.
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 