Ministers confirmed this week that they are considering setting a five-year time limit on permissions in principle (PiPs). This would be a matter for secondary legislation, peers learnt during further detailed consideration of the housing and planning bill.
This came during a marathon session of the legislation which kept peers up until half-past midnight on Tuesday night discussing the finer points of PiP and brownfield registers.
Government minister Baroness Williams of Trafford stressed that PiPs could not be granted retrospectively. She told the Upper Chamber: “Permission in principle, granted in allocation in locally prepared plans and registers, will apply only to those adopted once the permission in principle measure is fully in force.
“The government have no intention to apply the measure retrospectively to site allocations in existing local development plans. It will be possible to grant PiP only going forward, so existing plans and site allocations will not be affected”.
She insisted that decisions on PiPs would be a matter for local authorities, their communities and that the Secretary of State would have “no direct role in choosing specific sites to grant PiP to”.
The minister said there would be provision to modify or revoke a PiP, but only in “extreme circumstances”.
She also said that ministers would expect local authorities to make clear, when they give permission in principle “the matters they would expect to see covered in an application for technical details”.
She reiterated: “PiP will be granted only where the development is considered to be locally acceptable, in line with local and national policy”.
Peers were told that entering a site on a brownfield register “would not automatically grant permission in principle” according to another government minster Baroness Evans of Bowes Park.
Baroness Williams also told peers that the government’s plan to allow for planning fees to be set locally would not be subject to the hybrid procedure, rather the affirmative procedure: a much less time-consuming system.
View more information about the housing and planning bill
Roger Milne
The government has announced it will consult on the recommendations in the report of the Local Plans Expert Group until 27 April.
The report was published at the same time as the Budget last week. The Group reported an almost unanimous consensus about the problems facing local plan preparation.
These centre on agreeing housing need; difficulties with the duty to cooperate (including the distribution of unmet housing needs); a lack of political will and commitment; a lack of clarity on key issues, particularly SHMAs, strategic planning, green belt and environmental constraints; too many changes of policy, advice and factual changes in forecasts; and a lack of guidance, support and resources.
Developers and professional planners have given a broad welcome to the group’s proposals for shorter and faster plans which are more effective on growth and ensure proper community engagement.
President of the Royal Town Planning Institute Phil Williams said: “We want to see shorter, more proportionate and responsive, local plans and a greater focus on planning collaboratively across boundaries.
“Overall, the conclusions of the report will provide planners with greater certainty, for example, by allowing for judgments to be made on simpler evidence bases, and being subject to more flexible tests of soundness by the Inspectorate.
“We are also very pleased that the group has acknowledged the role that central government can play by taking steps to incentivise the development of growth points to ensure that housing needs are met”.
Ministers have made it clear that they want to see the planning system move towards a more zonal and ‘red lining’ approach where local authorities use their local plans to signal their development strategy from the outset and make maximum use of permissions in principle to give early certainty and reduce the number of stage developers must go through to get planning permission.
Roger Milne
Ministers have confirmed plans to provide greater flexibility over the deployment of mobile phone infrastructure by modifying the existing planning regime. This follows a consultation exercise carried out last year.
In a written parliamentary statement Planning Minister Brandon Lewis insisted the changes “were vital for our continued economic prosperity and social inclusion for all”.
He explained that where a site was already used for telecommunications infrastructure, permitted development rights would be extended to allow taller ground-based masts to be built.
“The threshold for new ground-based masts will increase from 15 metres to 25 metres in non-protected areas and a new permitted development right allowing new masts of up to 20 metres will be introduced in protected areas. “
He said that in order to ensure that there was “appropriate community engagement” a prior approval system would apply where a new mast was being built.
He went on to say that operators would also be able to increase the height of existing masts to 20 metres in both non-protected and protected areas without a prior approval; between 20 metres and 25 metres in non-protected areas with a prior approval.
Lewis also stated that operators would have a new automatic right to upgrade the infrastructure on their masts in protected areas to align with existing rights in non-protected areas. However, there will be a height restriction of 20 metres on highways and in residential areas.
He told MPs that the administration would lift restrictions on the number of antennae allowed on structures above 30 metres, while removing the prior approval requirement for individual antenna greater than six metres in height in non-protected areas and for two small cell antenna on residential premises in both non-protected and protected areas “as the visual impact is limited.”
Lewis promised the Commons that the Government would work with the industry and interested parties to strengthen the sector-owned code of practice to ensure best practice was always applied “when it comes to the siting and design of mobile infrastructure.”
The minister said the planning changes will come into effect from summer 2016 and would apply to England only.
Roger Milne
Following last week’s Budget announcements, which included a commitment for a statutory three month deadline for Secretary of State Decisions on called-in applications and recovered appeals, the Department for Communities and Local Government, has launched a number of key initiatives.
These involve starter homes, garden settlements and further reforms to the compulsory purchase order regime.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a Starter Homes Land Fund prospectus. This invites expressions of interest from local authorities outside of London to form partnerships with the Homes and Communities Agency to use the £1.2bn fund available to remediate brownfield sites earmarked for starter homes.
Meanwhile construction industry analyst Barbour ABI has been awarded a contract to provide DCLG with data regarding starter home projects from planning application stage to the beginning of work on site.
Separately DCLG has published a prospectus setting out how it will help local areas interested in garden villages, towns and cities and invited expressions of interest from local authorities who want to create new communities based on garden city principles.
In addition the DCLG has started consulting on a package of proposals for further reforms to the CPO regime.
These set out a clearer way to identify market value when agreeing levels of compensation. They also put mayoral development corporations on the same footing as new town and urban development corporations for the purposes of assessing compensation.
The package is also designed to simplify the process by enabling transport and regeneration bodies to make combined orders. Also involved will be the repeal of redundant legislation.
View the Starter Home policy paper
View the Locally-led garden villages, towns and cities policy paper
View the Further reform of the compulsory purchase system consultation documents
Roger Milne
Welsh planning minister Carl Sargeant has written to all chief planning officers highlighting the importance of not being too swayed by visual and amenity issues when considering renewable and low carbon energy schemes.
His letter said: “I appreciate that visual and amenity impact on surrounding communities and properties is an important issue (and policies are in place to protect against unacceptably adverse impacts) and that discussions of this nature can become quite emotive during the planning process.
“However planning decisions need to be taken in the wider public interest and in a rational way, informed by evidence, where these issues are balanced against other factors.”
The letter highlighted that the Energy Saving Trust has been commissioned by the government to deliver training for local planning authority members and officers on community renewables.
Sargeant also noted that in England permitted development rights for commercial properties have increased so that up to 1 megawatt solar panels can be installed on roofs subject to a prior approval procedure.
“I want to see if there is an alternative option available in Wales that will be less cumbersome for developers and those in the business community seeking to generate their own energy.
“We recently commissioned Arcadis to carry out research in this area and this is due to be completed by the Spring of 2016.”
He added: “The Welsh government is committed to using all using all possible levers it has to increase the supply of renewable energy in Wales for the benefit of the next generation and I expect local planning authorities to take the initiative in delivering sustainable outcomes for future generations.”
Roger Milne
Scottish rail prospects
HS2 Ltd has published a report on broad options for upgraded and high speed railways to the north of England and Scotland. This explores options to improve journey times from Edinburgh and Glasgow to cities further south, including options that could reduce journey times to London to three hours or under. It also considers how additional passenger and freight capacity could be met.
The report considers various options for building on HS2, including:
- Upgrades within the footprint of the existing railway
- New high speed bypasses of constrained track sections
- Complete new lines on either the east or west of the Pennines.
These alternatives range in cost between £17 and £43bn to reach a three hour journey time, although some are capable of being constructed in stages.
Deprivation counts
Latest analysis of data from the 2011 Census by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the 28 English towns and cities out of 109 under scrutiny with the largest percentage of deprived areas were in the North or Midlands of England.
Oldham and West Bromwich both had over 60 per cent of their local areas ranked in the most deprived 20 per cent of areas in England.
The towns and cities with the largest percentage of least deprived areas of England were Guildford, Woking and St Albans which each had over 50 per cent of their so-called Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) ranked in the least deprived 20 per cent of areas in England.
Brownfield best says CPRE report
Brownfield sites are being developed more than half a year faster than greenfield sites, according to research published by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
This follows on from CPRE research carried out in late 2014, which found that there are enough suitable brownfield sites for at least one million new homes.
The new research involved logging development activity at 15 local authorities across England between March 2012 and December 2015.
Construction consultants Glenigan collected and analysed the data which revealed that the time between planning permission being granted and construction work starting was generally the same for brownfield and greenfield sites. However work on brownfield sites was completed more than six months quicker.
CPRE insisted this work illustrated that prioritising investment in brownfield sites was a highly effective way of building the new homes needed.
The campaign group claimed the research undermined claims that brownfield was either too slow or inconvenient to develop in comparison to greenfield sites.
Growth deal funding
Local leaders wanting to boost skills, support business and build more homes will be offered the chance to apply for the latest round of Growth Deals worth billions of pounds, Communities Secretary Greg Clark said this week.
Under the Growth Deals, England’s 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships, made up of council leaders and business representatives, will be able to apply for a share of £1.8bn to support projects in their areas that boost local economic growth and create jobs.
The money forms part of the government’s £12bn Local Growth Fund, which is already being used to support successful projects, chosen by communities themselves.
Tunbridge Wells town centre revamp
Proposals for a £70m revamp of the Royal Victoria Place shopping centre in Tunbridge Wells have been approved by the borough council.
The town centre scheme, which will involve the demolition of some existing buildings, will add an extra 3,395 square metres of floor space and provide new shops, restaurants and an eight screen rooftop cinema.
Clark unmoved by Staffordshire turbine project
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has agreed with the inspector who held a recovered appeal inquiry over a two-turbine wind project earmarked for farm land at Haunton, Staffordshire and dismissed the proposal.
Clark’s decision letter said the scheme was in conflict with the 2015 Lichfield Development Plan, would have an adverse impact on the character and appearance of the area and that the turbines would stand out as “alien industrial features” in a pleasing rural landscape.
View the recovered appeal: Haunton Manor Farm, Haunton, Staffordshire
Ferdinand bids to score as developer
Former England captain Rio Ferdinand has unveiled government-backed plans to partner Central Bedfordshire Council and regenerate Kingsland, one of the most deprived areas in the town of Houghton Regis, with a world-class sports academy, education and community facilities as well as 1,000 new homes.
Legacy, the former Manchester United defender’s regeneration company set up in 2015 with footballers Mark Noble (West Ham) and Bobby Zamora (Brighton), will now work up the scheme for a 22-hectare site in an area already approved for major urban extensions.
The site includes various education establishments, the council’s Adult Skills Service and Houghton Regis Leisure Centre.
Council Leader James Jamieson said “Kingsland will help further regenerate Houghton Regis, an important town in which we are already committed to two planned major extensions. These will provide up to 7,000 new homes, 40-hectares of employment land, and a range of retail, leisure and other facilities, plus community infrastructure, including education, sports and green spaces”
London round-up
- London Mayor Boris Johnson has published a report which claims the environmental cost of expanding Heathrow is so enormous that the only credible solution to Britain’s aviation dilemma is to pursue plans for a new hub airport to the east of the capital, away from populated areas.
- Consolidated Developments has been granted planning consent by Camden Council, for the final piece of its £90m St Giles Circus development in the West End. The scheme includes new buildings and refurbished listed buildings and will provide both an 800-saeater music venue and a smaller 280 venue at the site of the former 12 Bar Blues Club in Denmark Street. Cartoon drawings and graffiti scrawled by Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten on property in the same street has helped two buildings (no 6 and 7) be awarded Grade 2* listed status.
- British Land has submitted a planning application for a 32-storey tower in Finsbury Avenue Square in the City of London despite protests from heritage groups about the demolition of the existing building, which houses the British headquarters of UBS.
- The Royal Docks and Beckton Riverside Opportunity Area Planning Framework has been published and is now out for consultation. It focuses on releasing surplus industrial land and intensifying other sites, which City Hall believes will open up further developable land, potentially leading to the delivery of 24,000 homes and 60,000 new jobs.
- International law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has been formally appointed to advise Tideway, the new company created to finance and deliver London’s £4.2bn Thames Tideway Tunnel. BLP will provide expertise in planning, environment, compulsory purchase and asset protection as well as real estate advice.
Legal round-up
- The Court of Appeal has ruled on the meaning of the expression in paragraph 49 of the NPPF, “relevant policies for the supply of housing”. The importance of the paragraph is that if the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites, such policies are not to be considered as up-to-date. The ruling follows some seven or more High Court decisions offering significantly differing takes on the import of the paragraph. The two cases at the centre of this judgment involved Suffolk Coastal District Council and Cheshire East Council.
- The Court of Appeal has upheld a challenge brought by traders against a High Court ruling that the decision by former Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to confirm a compulsory purchase order for Shepherd’s Bush Market in west London was lawful. In confirming the CPO made by Hammersmith & Fulham Council Pickles had gone against the recommendation of a planning inspector.
- Leicester University has won a High Court battle over Oadby & Wigston Borough Council’s refusal to grant an application for a certificate of lawful use for a hall of residence for students and conference delegates. The planning authority’s stance had been backed by a planning inspector on appeal.
- Two north London landlords who breached planning regulations by converting a house into seven studio flats have been ordered to pay a total of £116,000 in fines and costs by Blackfriars Crown Court following action by Islington Council.
- South Cambridgeshire District Council’s decision to approve a new ground for Cambridge City FC at a green belt location at Sawston has survived a High Court challenge.
- A High Court judge has upheld a planning inspector’s decision to grant permission on appeal to a developer for a 32-dwelling scheme in Worcestershire originally refused by Wychavon District Council despite the Communities Secretary conceding that the decision should be quashed.
- Somerford Parish Council has won a High Court challenge over Cheshire East Council’s refusal to register land in its area as a village green.
- Cheshire East Council has lost its legal challenge over an appeal approval for a 150-home scheme at Wistaston which the planning authority claimed breached its green gap policy.
Roger Milne
Wednesday’s Budget announcements confirmed the government’s appetite for a new wave of garden settlements with a promise of legislation to make it easier for local authorities to work together to create new garden towns and cities.
Local authorities and businesses covered by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership have just unveiled ambitious proposals for a new garden city providing some 45,000 new homes in 30 towns and settlements in and around Wolverhampton, stretching from Aldridge to West Bromwich.
The scheme has the backing of the government and the support of the Homes and Communities Agency. Some 550 brownfield sites across the sub region have been identified. The 1,500-hectare project will require an investment of around £6bn.
Ministers are also keen to provide technical and financial support for areas that want to establish garden villages and market towns of between 1,500 and 10,000 homes. The prospect of “planning and financial flexibilities” is on offer alongside a second wave of compulsory purchase order reforms.
The Budget Report said the government would release more public sector land for housing and has committed to providing greater freedom for the deployment of mobile phone infrastructure. This will involve reducing planning restrictions and allowing taller new ground-based masts to be built.
Chancellor Gordon Osborne announced an additional boost to spending on flood defence which would amount to a spend of £700m by 2020-21. Flood defence schemes in Leeds, York, Calder Valley and wider Cumbria are on the cards
On the devolution front, the Budget signalled new deals with the West of England, East Anglia and Greater Lincolnshire in addition to a further round of Growth Deals with LEPs.
And the government announced it would create a new Marine Hub Enterprise Zone in Cornwall. New EZs will be established at Brierley Hill in Dudley, Loughborough and Leicester. The existing Sheffield City Region EZ will be extended.
The government has also requested the National Infrastructure Commission carry out a study on the strategic infrastructure priorities for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor which contains some of England’s fastest-growing and most productive cities.
At the same time as the Budget the Local Plan Expert Group has published its report which makes a series of recommendations designed to streamline and speed up the local plan making process.
The group has recommended simplifying the calculations of housing need and halving the timetable for plan making. It has also suggested ways of better integrating local plans with Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Charging Schedules.
View more information on the Budget 2016
View the Local Pans Expert Group report to the Secretary of State
Roger Milne
Chancellor George Osborne this week committed £300m to kick-start work on major transport schemes in the capital and the North, specifically Crossrail 2 and rail and road links between Manchester and Leeds, which are expected to trigger significant urban development.
Support for the capital’s Crossrail 2 scheme is predicated on the development of a housing strategy which would involve some release of green belt land and the provision up to 200,000 new homes.
In the North the expectation is that the long term transformation of Manchester Piccadilly station should stimulate significant regeneration across 60-hectares of central Manchester.
Osborne’s commitment to significant transport infrastructure spending came in the wake of two reports from the National Infrastructure Commission
The first, published last week, urged backing for Crossrail 2, the proposed new north-east to south-west tunnelled rail line across the capital. The Commission insisted funding should be made available now to develop the scheme fully with the aim of submitting a hybrid bill by autumn 2019. This would enable Crossrail 2 to open in 2033.
The Commission called for a funding plan in which London contributed more than half the total for the scheme. Also recommended was a strategy to maximise private sector involvement in the development and funding of stations and their surrounding areas and the construction of at least 200,000 homes along the route. This could require the creation of one or more development corporations.
The second report, published on Tuesday, made the case for a higher speed, higher capacity and higher frequency rail network in the North from Liverpool in the west to Hull and Newcastle in the east. This would incorporate sections of the proposed HS2 project as well as upgraded lines and sections of new track where necessary. This is being called HS3.
The Commission said the development of this network should begin with the rail link between Manchester and Leeds, the two largest economies of the North. Phase one should reduce journey times from 49 to 40 minutes and increase capacity by 2022. Phase two could cut to just 30 minutes.
The Commission said an integrated plan covering both phases should be drawn up before the end of 2017. It added that route decisions on the northern sections of HS2 to be announced later this year should support enhanced high-speed connections within the North, including between Leeds-Sheffield, Liverpool-Manchester, and Sheffield-Newcastle.
The Commission argued that Highways England should accelerate capacity enhancements to the M62 between Liverpool and Manchester and between Manchester and Leeds. Also firmly on the agenda is the prospect of a new road link between Manchester and Sheffield involving a tunnel under the Peak District.
Roger Milne
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has sided with Maldon District Council which last year took issue with the planning inspector examining its local plan. When the inspector issued his initial findings [on the plan] he concluded the strategy was unsound because its stance on sites for travellers wasn’t consistent with national policy.
The council claimed the inspector’s interim findings were neither balanced nor proportionate and complained to Communities Secretary Greg Clark. He subsequently directed that the plan should be submitted to him for approval. The inspector involved has since retired.
Clark has written to the council agreeing that “it was not proportionate for the inspector to find the whole plan unsound because he had not examined the whole plan.
The SoS acknowledged that the inspector was correct in his analysis that the local plan policy on travellers’ sites was deficient. But he said the inspector was wrong not to give the council an opportunity to remedy the problems.
Now Clark has announced he will appoint a new inspector to consider the local plan “and all the currently available written and audio evidence from the initial hearings and to then reach their own view on what further evidence is needed, including any further hearings”.
Councillor Mrs. Penny Channer was chair of the council’s planning committee throughout the local plan preparation period.
She said: “Maldon District Council feel vindicated by the response by the Secretary of State, as we felt we had submitted a robust plan”.
Roger Milne
Wales’ first City Deal, aimed at boosting the economic competitiveness of the so-called Cardiff City Region (CCR) was confirmed this week.
At the heart of the £1.2bn agreement, announced on Tuesday, are ambitious proposals to improve public transport via the South Wales Metro project, a scheme which includes Valley Lines electrification.
Equally crucial, the Welsh Government and the Cardiff Capital Region councils have committed to a new partnership approach to housing development and regeneration. This is designed to ensure the delivery of sustainable communities, through the use and re-use of property and sites.
The ten local authorities involved in CCR, Cardiff, The Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Bridgend, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen and Newport, have agreed to contribute £120m to a 20-year investment fund. The UK and Welsh Governments are each providing £500m.
The local authorities have also signed up to the creation of a Cardiff Capital Region Cabinet, a non-statutory Regional Transport Authority, a Cardiff Capital Region Skills and Employment Board and a Cardiff Capital Region Business Organisation.
National and local politicians claimed the deal would create up to 25,000 jobs and leverage £4bn of private sector investment.
As part of this City Deal, the Welsh Government will explore with the Cardiff Capital Region councils the devolution of business rate income above an agreed growth baseline and the ability to levy an infrastructure supplement.
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 