Planning Portal Blog

The Royal Town Planning Institute has written to the Chancellor arguing against any further cuts in local authority funding and urging an increase in planning fees.

The letter, sent in advance of Osborne’s promised July budget, highlighted that local authority planning and development services have experienced the largest cuts of any local government service area since 2010.

According to the Local Government Association, by 2015/16 core funding for local government will have been reduced by 40 per cent and further reductions are anticipated.

RTPI president Janet Askew said: “We have written to the Chancellor to impress upon him that in order for us to meet our national objectives increasing capacity in local authority planning teams is an urgent priority and cannot be avoided if the government expects to deliver on its ambitious programme.

“In his July budget, we are also calling for a national rise in planning fees in line with the rate of inflation as a short-term measure. There is further scope, we believe, for local authorities and developers to work together, for example through planning performance and pre-application agreements, to increase resourcing in specific areas.”

The letter acknowledged that planners are divided over whether planning fees should be set locally. However, the institute says it sees no harm in such a move “providing that authorities have adequate capacity to set them and could give assurances to applicants that they will receive a proportional service (in terms of fair decision making)”.

The RTPI said it saw scope for further formalising the cost of planning services to be funded by applicants through measures like pre-application charging and planning performance agreements.

Read the letter in full

Roger Milne

Welsh public service minister Leighton Andrews has published proposals for the future shape of local government in Wales which would mean the present 22 local authorities would be reduced to either eight or nine depending on what happens in North Wales.

His blueprint envisages the return of historic counties such as Dyfed and West Glamorgan. Dyfed would be brought back by re-merging Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. West Glamorgan would return by joining Swansea once more with Neath Port Talbot.

Cardiff would merge with the Vale of Glamorgan, while a merger between Caerphilly, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Newport and Monmouthshire would create Wales’ biggest council, with a population of nearly 600,000. Bridgend would join Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil.

The minister will consult further on whether to move to two or three councils in North Wales. In the eight-council model, Ynys Mon, Gwynedd and Conwy would merge, as would Denbighshire, Wrexham and Flintshire. The alternative would see Conwy and Denbighshire merging.

The minister insisted: “The case for fewer local authorities in Wales is compelling and widely accepted. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity to reform and reshape our councils to drive funding into improving frontline services. We will drive down the cost of politics and administration in local government.”

He added: “The case in North Wales is finely balanced between two or three local authorities. We therefore feel that there is a case for a further debate and would welcome views.”

Andrews signalled there would be a draft ‘Mergers and Reform’ bill in the autumn. This will include further, formal consultation on proposals for local authority mergers and include a Regulatory Impact Assessment.

View the written statement

Roger Milne

Wealden District Council has granted outline planning permission to developer Welbeck Strategic Land for a 1,000-home urban extension at the East Sussex country town of Uckfield.

The 90-hectare site at Ridgewood Farm to the west of the settlement had been identified in the council’s core strategy for residential development and 12,650 square metres of employment floor space.

The scheme includes a new neighbourhood with up to 1,000 homes in a mix of sizes and tenures and nearly 13,500 square metres of employment space.

The affordable housing provision in the scheme has been set at between 15 and 35 per cent but varied according to viability as the development is phased.

Existing farmhouse and brick buildings near the centre of the site would be converted under the plans to provide a local convenience shop, health facilities and a community meeting space. A one-form primary school, with potential to be expanded to two forms, has been proposed immediately to the south of the converted buildings.

The plans also include an area near the A22 for the provision of leisure facilities, with potential for use as a pub or restaurant. In order to mitigate the impact of the proposed development on the Ashdown Forest Special Protection Area, suitable alternative natural green space, in the form of a 29-hectare recreation area, has been proposed to the west of the A22.

View more information about the development

Roger Milne

New local bodies called ‘Local Place Partnerships’ (LPPs) led by local authorities should be established to ensure new housing and infrastructure is provided, think tank ResPublica has advocated in a report.

ResPublica says the only way to plug a shortage of affordable housing is through the creation of new local institutions that devolve housing to people and places.

The think-tank argued that these new bodies could dramatically increase the numbers of homes built by bringing together all the interested parties: private developers, housing associations, residents, civil society and local business and addressing their concerns and wishes through one decision point.

ResPublica said residents should be able to petition local authorities to set-up LPPs.

ResPublica director Phillip Blond, said: “For too long, housing policy has been controlled by Whitehall, and the lack of local authority involvement has been a primary driver behind the failure to build new homes at the scale needed.

“The only way that we will mitigate the Whitehall ‘command and control’ model, and an old local authority led model is by introducing a new institution that draws a wide range of partners together to coordinate the building of genuinely affordable and aesthetically pleasing homes, and provide the infrastructure needed for communities to thrive.”

The report proposed that funding for new housing should come from private and public partnerships and such initiatives as the Local Government Association’s Municipal Bonds Agency. The think-tank also identified the Local Government Pension scheme as another source of finance.

View the publication on the ResPublica website

Roger Milne

MP urges axe for traveller sites policy

An MP told Parliament last week that the policy requiring local authorities to plan to meet the housing needs of gypsies and travellers should be axed.

Planning laws were “favourably skewed” towards gypsy and traveller communities, Conservative MP Philip Hollobone claimed during a Commons debate.

Citing examples of antisocial behaviour, the Kettering MP urged ministers to “listen to these concerns from the heart of middle England”.

But during the Westminster Hall debate, he was criticised by Labour MPs who said his comments would “stigmatise” the communities.

“I simply do not see why, and neither do my constituents see why, there should be any special provision at all in the planning system for gypsies and travellers,” said Hollobone.

He said he was not “picking” on travellers but said residents had been left “in tears” because land near their homes had been designated as potential sites for pitches.

In a separate but related development, latest government statistics showed that the number of unauthorised caravans on land not owned by gypsies or travellers had fallen by 20 per cent between January 2014 and January 2015.

View the transcription of the debate

Developers want CPO blight changes

The government should consider making it easier for property owners to serve blight notices when they are affected by Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) proceedings.

That’s the view of the British Property Federation in its detailed response to the administration’s latest proposals for the reform of the CPO regime.

The developer’s lobby group argued that as a result of the experiences of HS2, Transport for London and others, there was now a significant level of understanding of the need for a re-think of blight provisions.

“We suggest that consideration of a more market-based approach to provide for a revised process for dealing with generalised blight would be welcome and that the current annual value limits for blight are in need of review as they set an unnecessarily restrictive bar on claims,” it said.

The BPF said most of the government’s current proposals were welcome but added: “CPO is a powerful tool to support regeneration and a more comprehensive reform would enable it to be used more effectively”.

View the BPF response

Rare spiders see off Plymouth homes

Developer Wainhomes’ appeal over a proposal for 57 dwellings at Plymstock, Plymouth, has failed even though the city council could not show a five year housing land supply and the provision of affordable housing would have been a benefit. The appeal was dismissed because the site was known to be one of only two in the UK which is home to a rare breed of arachnid, the horrid ground weaver spider.

Cherwell, Cornwall and North Dorset local plans round-up

• The planning inspector who examined Cherwell District Council’s draft local plan has concluded the strategy is sound provided some modifications are accepted by the Oxfordshire District Council. The plan makes provision for sites for some 22,840 homes and 200 hectares of employment land up to 2031. Examination of the strategy was suspended last year to allow Cherwell to revise its housing figures in line with Oxfordshire’s recently published Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA).
• The examination of Cornwall Council’s draft local plan has been put on hold while the planning authority responds to the planning inspector’s insistence that the housing target of more than 47,000 new dwellings needs to be adjusted using the latest government predictions and to reflect pressure from second home and holiday property owners.
• North Dorset District Council is considering a series of main modifications to its draft local plan proposed by the planning inspector who examined the strategy. He has insisted the changes are needed for it to be regarded as sound. The Objective Assessment of Housing Need will have to be adjusted to accommodate an allowance for second homes and there are revisions to housing locations and growth at Blandord St Mary, Gillingham, Shaftesbury, and Sturminster Newton and at Stalbridge.

View more information on Cherwell local plan
View more information on Cornwall Council’s local plan
View more information on North Dorset District Council local plan

Heathrow neighbourhood plan

Residents near Heathrow Airport on the western flank of London have agreed the boundary for a proposed neighbourhood plan. The local Heathrow Villages Forum has decided it will cover Sipson, Harmondsworth and Harlington, but not Cranford and Longford.

The forum has agreed the main themes of the strategy. It will have eight priorities: housing, transport, enterprise, community spaces, green spaces, heritage, health and wellbeing.

Don Valley Stadium redevelopment

Plans have been submitted to Sheffield City Council for the proposed 11-hectare Olympic Legacy Park to be built on the former Don Valley Stadium site.

The park includes an Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC), 3,000-seat arena, University Technical College and an academy for 1,200 pupils. In March, the government announced it was giving £14m towards building the AWRC. It has also attracted £1.5m from Japanese electronics firm Toshiba.

The park, a joint venture between Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield City Council and the private sector, is due to open next year. It will incorporate the existing English Institute of Sport and IceSheffield.

Energy projects round-up

• Plans for a £200m three-turbine tidal barrage on the Wyre estuary in Lancashire have been proposed by Natural Energy Wyre Ltd which has been granted an exclusivity deal by the Duchy of Lancaster which owns the estuary.
• Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens has been granted detailed planning permission by Hull City Council for a state-of-the-art blade factory and associated facilities at Alexandra Dock under the terms of the Local Development Order adopted in 2012. The plans aim to assist in attracting renewable energy businesses to the port area within the Humber Enterprise Zone.
• Proposals for a solar farm on 44 hectares of land owned by a Dorset MP on the Charborough Estate look set to be approved by East Dorset District Council. The project would be run by green power company Good Energy.
• An opencast mine proposed by UK Coal at Shortwood Farm Nottinghamshire with a five-year life has been given final planning consent by the county council. The coal will be used by the nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.
• Plans for an electricity substation and control centre near the site of a proposed tidal energy farm off the Isle of Wight have been given outline planning permission by the Isle of Wight Council.
• In a related development Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre has applied to the Marine Management Organisation to install seabed turbines off St Catherine’s Point.
• Shropshire Council has refused permission for a 17-hectare solar farm at Whitton near Ludlow.
• Meanwhile, energy firm Big60Million has applied to Cotswold District Council to develop a 23.4 megawatt solar farm on land near Witpit Lane, Preston.
• Southern England MPs lined up to complain about the Navitus offshore wind farm project when the scheme was discussed in the Commons this week. At its nearest point to the coast at Swanage the array, between 78 and 121 turbines, would be just 9 miles out to sea. There is widespread local opposition because of the wind farm’s impact on tourism and in particular the UNESCO-designated Jurassic coast. The proposals have been considered as a nationally significant infrastructure project and have been examined by a team of inspectors from the Planning Inspectorate. The scheme is due to be determined by ministers in the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the autumn.

London round-up

• Three multi-million pound deals, just announced, will provide over 1,000 new homes specifically for private rent in London. The homes will be built in some of the capital’s most sought-after locations, including the newest neighbourhood in Stratford’s Olympic Village site. Involved will be 903 homes for rent at Stratford’s Olympic Village; 278 homes for rent at Newington Butts in Southwark and 172 homes for rent across sites in Hammersmith, Westminster and West Kensington. Work on the homes will start straight away and be completed in 2017 and 2018. Each site will include a mix of one, two and three-bedroom properties, all located closely to underground stations.
• Communities Secretary Greg Clark has called in controversial plans by Hall McKnight to redevelop King’s College London’s Strand campus next to Somerset House in central London.
• Chelsea Football Club is poised to reveal detailed proposals for redeveloping its existing Stamford Bridge home in west London into a 60,000-seat stadium in a move which may mean the club will have to find an alternative ground for at least two seasons. Twickenham is one possibility, it has emerged.

Swindon leisure project includes ski scheme

Plans for a leisure complex incorporating a ski centre, 5,000-seat concert venue and cinema in Swindon have been submitted to the borough council by developer Moirai Capital Investment Ltd.

The £120m North Star project is proposed to be built around the existing Oasis leisure centre. The new complex will cover more than 12 hectares and also includes a skate park, hotel, restaurants and cafes.

View more information about the development

Northern Ireland planning performance falls

The latest Northern Ireland Planning Development Management Statistics for 2014/15 show that the Planning Service failed to meet any of the Department of the Environment key planning performance targets.

It took an average of 16 weeks to process local applications to decision (or withdrawal), one week in excess of the 15 week target. Only 68 per cent of large scale investment applications were processed within six months compared to the 90 per cent government target.

Other targets to reduce the number of live cases over one year old and enforcement cases over two years old, to 650 and 400 cases respectively, were also not achieved.

View the full statistics

Green Belt stats show housing approval rise

The number of new homes being approved on green belt sites in England has increased five-fold in the last five years, according to figures obtained by the BBC.

In 2009-10 planning permission was granted for 2,258 homes, while in 2014-15 the figure rose to 11,977. In the last year alone the number of approvals doubled.

Government policy insists that the green belt should only be built on in “exceptional circumstances”.

Areas feeling the most pressure include Hertfordshire, where the Campaign to Protect Rural England claims sites for 34,000 homes have already been proposed, with another 10,000 waiting in the wings.

Legal round-up

• A further legal challenge over planning permission for the demolition and redevelopment of the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank has been rejected by the Appeal Court.
• The High Court in Bristol has been hearing a wildlife charity’s judicial review challenge to Teignbridge District Council’s grant of planning permission for a 230-home development at Chudleigh close to a protected area used by greater horseshoe bats.
• The Supreme Court will next week hear a key case on appropriate assessments, EIA assessments and mitigation measures. The case centres on the planning permission granted by North Norfolk District Council for a development involving a lorry park and barley silos at a location by the river Wensum which affects both a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Planners in Birthday Honours list

Both a Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) official and the author of a government-commissioned review of non-planning consents were recognised for services to planning in the Queen’s birthday honours list.

Jane Everton, deputy director for planning (development plans) at DCLG, received a CBE while Adrian Penfold, head of planning at developer British Land and author of the Penfold Review, was awarded an OBE.

Also recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours were: Robert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster City Council, who received an MBE for services to planning and local government; Ronald Simpson, secretary of Uppingham First and author of the Uppingham Neighbourhood Plan, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to community planning; and Malcolm Shepherd, chief executive of charity Sustrans, who was awarded a CBE for services to transport and the environment.

View a full list of the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015

Restoration Fund launched by Mineral Products Association

The Mineral Products Association (MPA) has relaunched its Restoration Guarantee Fund (MPARGF). It represents an industry pledge which ensures that restoration of a site can still be paid for and completed, if an operator becomes financially insolvent.

The MPARGF is endorsed by government through the National Planning Policy Framework.

Download the new MPA Restoration Guarantee Fund leaflet

Roger Milne

Communities Secretary Greg Clark has intervened over the fate of Maldon district council’s emerging local plan and directed that it is submitted to him for approval.

This move came three weeks after David Vickery, the inspector examining the plan, said it was unsound because it failed to make adequate provision for traveller sites.

At the time the Essex local authority said it was “shocked and extremely concerned” about the implications of the inspector’s ‘interim findings’. The council had suggested it should produce a separate plan to deal with the traveller issues. This course of action was rejected by the inspector.

Maldon formally requested intervention by Clark last month as well as considering a legal challenge over the inspector’s stance.

Clark said his action would test “whether the planning inspector has taken a proportionate and balanced view on the local plan as a whole in the light of national planning policy”.

The Secretary of State added: “The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local plans should be positively prepared, justified, effective, consistent with national policy, and based on proportionate evidence.”

In a separate but related development, the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) confirmed that Vickery has announced his intention of retiring and is currently working through his three-month notice period. His decision to leave PINS predates Clark’s decision to intervene over the Maldon local plan.

View the direction

Roger Milne

Ministers have granted planning approval in the shape of a Development Consent Order for the construction of the world’s first tidal lagoon at a site in Swansea Bay.

If built, turbines in the proposed six-mile horseshoe shaped sea wall around the bay could generate 320 megawatts of power.

The £1bn project still requires a marine licence from Natural Resources Wales and crucially, agreement with the Department of Energy and Climate Change over the price of electricity produced by the scheme under the administration’s Contract for Difference regime.

Energy and Climate Change and Wales Office Minister Lord Bourne said: “Low carbon energy projects like the tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay could bring investment, support local jobs and help contribute to the Welsh economy and Swansea area.”

The developer, Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) plc, is considering a number of other similar projects off the UK coast including near Cardiff and Newport.

The scheme has been welcomed by the two local planning authorities involved, the County and City of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.

Swansea council leader Rob Stewart said the tidal lagoon could lead to a new industry “right on our doorstep that could potentially create a new export market in Swansea”.

View the press release on GOV.UK

Roger Milne

Local authorities need new measures including “use it or lose it” powers to accelerate the amount of new housing in the right places according to countryside lobby group the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The CPRE has also urged the use of reformed Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) to acquire land suitable for housing at existing use value.

Another proposal from the group would mean authorities could levy council tax on housing that is unfinished two years after the granting of planning permission.

These recommendations are outlined in a new research paper from CPRE. The paper, Getting Houses Built, argued that the current focus on profitability within the current house building sector, dominated by a small number of volume builders, was dictating supply but not meeting need.

The paper said that this focus had adversely affected the location and build-out rates of new housing. The paper states: “Greenfield land is being targeted for its ease and lower risk, while suitable brown field land nearby remains unused and too few affordable homes are being built.”

The paper highlighted that the nine largest volume house builders have long-term strategic land banks of 314,000 housing plots.

CPRE has acknowledged that private developers have a duty to their shareholders over national housing targets, but insisted the “figure indicates the need to reform the current system to accelerate the supply of homes in the right places”.

Luke Burroughs, the author of the paper and policy advisor at CPRE, said: “Improving transparency in land ownership and viability assessments would greatly boost residential development. Local authorities can also help small-scale builders develop suitable smaller sites by doing more to identify and earmark these sites for development.”

View the paper on the CPRE website

Roger Milne

The government has stressed that its city devolution bill was not just about greater Manchester and the so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’, but would also provide opportunities for other urban areas and counties.

Department of Communities and Local Government minister Baroness Williams told the House of Lords this week that the legislation “does not just cover cities”. She said it would enable proposals to come forward from counties, groups of authorities and certainly from rural areas.

She said: “Although we have been quite tied up with the concept of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, there are great counties, such as Cornwall, which will be very keen to put forward some of their proposals, and the government are very keen to have a conversation with them.”

The minister acknowledged that the transfer of major powers would require an elected mayor but told peers it “does not preclude any area from coming forward with proposals, and a conversation taking place between those areas and government”.

She said the proposals were “an enabling bill. It does recognise that one size does not fit all. It recognises that Manchester is different from Birmingham, which is different from Leeds, which is different from Cornwall, which is different from Norwich. It also recognises that medium-tier cities will have their proposals.”

Baroness Williams added: “Nothing is being imposed. Where there is a request for an ambitious devolution of a suite of powers to a combined authority, there must be a metro mayor, but no city will be forced to have a mayor and the powers that come with it.”

Her comments came during the second reading of the administration’s Cities and Local Government devolution bill which will now be considered line-by-line by the Lords. Opposition parties are broadly in favour of the bill.

View more information on the Cities and local government devolution bill

Roger Milne