COVID-19: England to get pop-up cycle lanes ‘within weeks’
Transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced that £250 million is to be invested in creating pop-up cycle lanes, wider pavements, safer junctions and bus-only corridors in England.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Cardiff gasworks site bought for major housing scheme
Cardiff City Council has acquired the 12-hectare former gasworks site in Grangetown, earmarked for a major residential development that will see its iconic listed gasholder incorporated in the scheme.
Roger Milne, The Planner
Transport secretary approves Midlands freight terminal
Four Ashes Limited’s application for a development consent order (DCO) to deliver an intermodal freight terminal in the West Midlands has been granted.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
The UK had lifestyle and business operating restrictions imposed on 23 March 2020 in a drastic but needed step to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As it has in every aspect of life, the limitations have had a significant impact on the planning and construction industries.
Construction has long been a central tenet of government’s economic growth strategy but this was brought to a halt by the national lock-down. In the planning arena specifically, many businesses have furloughed staff and some have found creative solutions to manage work remotely. Now, as construction sites start to reopen, we are sharing what all of this has meant for the nature and volume of planning applications submitted in the first of our Planning Market Insight Reports.
Obtaining market data to inform business planning has never been more critical than it is today and we are therefore delighted to be able to release this data publicly and comprehensively for the first time. We hope you find the report interesting and welcome feedback on what else you may find useful to add into future reports.
Fund set up to help heritage sector through Covid-19
Historic England has launched a fund of up to £2 million to tackle the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) on the heritage sector.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Consultancy launches Covid-19 tracker
Planning consultancy Lichfields has created an online resource to assist planning professionals with navigating the planning environment during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
New regulations for Welsh local authority meetings should help planning
Regulations came into force in Wales this week that should make it easier for the planning system to carry on functioning.
Roger Milne, The Planner
The Planning Portal has been around now for almost 18 years – and some of the original team are still here! Just this week I’ve been reminded of my 11th anniversary and I still occasionally feel like the new girl, surrounded by a depth of skills and knowledge which is invaluable.
Over those 18 years, the team are proud to have led the transformation of the planning and building process; driving forward e-planning in the early 2000s, supporting change to ‘digital by default’ services through the 2010s and more latterly engaging in the world of PropTech. But as the work of digital transformation has evolved, we’ve always been clear on our focus to deliver the best possible service for our customers and partners. This was true for us as a government body and is equally true today.
Lawyers suggest measures to address permission expiry deadlines
The legal profession in England and Wales has outlined a number of planning measures to help to manage the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) – including amending primary legislation to extend the time limit on planning permissions.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Sharma approves London energy park
Energy secretary Alok Sharma has granted a development consent order (DCO) for the construction of an onshore electricity generating station in the London Borough of Bexley.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Homes approved on former green belt land in Nottinghamshire
Rushcliffe Borough Council has granted outline planning permission for 85 homes on land allocated in the local plan for development.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Permitted development rights for creation of medical facilities comes into effect
Emergency legislation that allows councils and health providers in England to establish facilities to support the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak came into force on 9 April.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Community groups invited to monitor public participation in planning
The national charity for the civic movement has asked communities and local authorities to provide it with feedback on how new regulations for determining planning applications during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak are being implemented.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Homes England bought land for 5,000 homes in 2019/2020
In the 2019/2020 financial year, Homes England acquired 19 sites that have the capacity to deliver 5,000 homes.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Following our recent post, the full data for March is now in and reveals some interesting detail and perhaps cause for cautious optimism. Normally, March is the busiest month for online planning application submissions, typically rising about 10 per cent on February’s totals.
As mentioned in the last post, this trend continued for the first week in March but then numbers started to decline as measures to control COVID-19 were put in place and business and local authorities had to adapt their working processes quickly.
Covid-19: Quartermain outlines government support for planning authorities in final letter as chief planner
England’s chief planner Steve Quartermain has encouraged local planning authorities to use technology to continue their service and ensure that discussions and consultations can go ahead during the outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19).
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Coronavirus Act allows virtual planning committee meetings
Planning committee meetings will be able to be held virtually during restrictions implemented to stem the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) under emergency legislation.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
Decline in planning decisions and applications in England
District-level planning authorities granted 83,500 decisions in the fourth quarter of 2019, which is equivalent to 87 per cent of decisions.
Laura Edgar, The Planner
As you will have seen from our earlier posts, we have recently been putting measures in place to protect our staff whilst ensuring continuity of service during the COVID-19 outbreak. As a digital service, we have been fortunate to have a digitally skilled and mobile workforce that has adapted well to working from home. That said, it has of course been a mindset shift for all of us as everyone acclimatises to different ways of working. We’ve been monitoring the online application stats closely too, to try and understand what this means for our customers, at least in the short-term, as well as working with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Local Authorities to support the planning process across the board.
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