Planning Portal Blog

House builders have hit back at claims by local authorities that they are ‘land-banking’ and building-out schemes more slowly than in the past.

Industry body the Home Builders Federation reacted angrily to research published by the Local Government Association which showed that 475,647 homes in England had been given planning permission but had yet to be built.

The research also indicated that developers are taking longer to complete work on site. It now takes 32 months, on average, from sites receiving planning permission to building work being completed, 12 months longer than in 2007/8 according to the LGA.

The LGA argued that this underlined the need for councils to be allowed to invest more in house-building and more action to address skills shortage in the construction industry.

The HBF denied its members were land-banking. In a statement it insisted: “The vast majority of the 475,647 homes quoted by the LGA are either on sites where work has already started, or where there is not a fully ‘implementable’ permission and where it is not legal for builders to commence construction.

“Speeding up the rate at which permissions are granted, i.e. the move from ‘granted’ to ‘implementable’, is one of the keys to significant, sustainable increases in house building.

“Too many sites are stuck in the planning system, with an estimated 150,000 plots awaiting full sign off by local authorities.”

View the press release

Roger Milne

Watchdog queries deliverability of major government projects

A third of major government projects due to deliver in the next five years are rated as in doubt or unachievable unless action is taken to improve delivery, the National Audit Office has reported.

The spending watchdog said it was “particularly worrying” that 37 out of 106 projects which include key infrastructure schemes like Crossrail were rated as red or amber-red.

It added that initiatives had been designed to improve the oversight and delivery of these kinds of projects, but their impact had been unclear.

The NAO noted how the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (the former Major Projects Authority) and Whitehall departments had taken “many positive steps” to develop capability and provide greater assurance on improving project delivery.

The watchdog said it was difficult to tell whether performance was improving “without reliable and consistent measures of project success”.

It complained about the limited data published by departments; inconsistent reporting of costs; and the absence of systematic monitoring of whether intended benefits have been achieved.

View the press release

 

Canterbury homes boost

Developer Pentland Homes has obtained outline planning permission for Canterbury’s largest housing scheme in decades. The company is set to build up to 750 homes on land near Harington in Kent.

The development, known as Thanington Park, includes a business park, community centre, primary school, allotments and sports pitches, as well as a wildlife corridor linking to the adjacent Larkey Valley Wood nature reserve. It would also include a new slip-road linking the A2 and Wincheap as well as a park and ride service.

View more information on the Thanington Park website

 

Solar power moves

• North Lincolnshire Council has approved a supplementary planning document (SPD) covering solar photovoltaic (PV) power development. This expects schemes to be proposed for previously developed or industrial land, on existing roofs or integrated into new roofs and buildings. Where proposals involve farm land sites only poorer quality agricultural land will be acceptable.
• Swansea Council planners have recommended approval for a solar farm at Pontarddulais despite criticism over the local authority’s lack of policy on such projects and fears the scheme might cause a glare risk to drivers on the nearby M4.
• Meanwhile a 20,000 panel solar farm planned for a site in Peterlee has been approved by Durham County Council.

 

Crossrail 2 concerns

Crossrail 2, the proposed new rail route running from north London into Surrey, should extend as far as both Woking and Dorking, according to the county council.

Those are key findings of a study for the local authority examining ways to get the maximum benefit for Surrey’s businesses and commuters from the scheme.

Plans for the cross-London line currently take in Shepperton, Epsom, Hampton Court, Chessington South and Surbiton stations on its southern tip.

Meanwhile Hackney Council wants a fundamental rethink over proposals for a new Crossrail 2 station in Dalston, east London, which would see homes and businesses demolished and Ridley Road Market disrupted.

The council has also urged Transport for London not to use Shoreditch Park or the Britannia Leisure Centre for an access and ventilation shaft to serve the project.

In a related development amenity body the Victorian Society has warned that historic buildings which have been part of central London since the 19th century could be demolished to make way for the new rail line. The sites identified at risk by the group include several Grade II-listed buildings and part of Angel station in Islington, built in 1902.

View more information on the Crossrail 2 website

 

Knowsley adopts Core Strategy and deallocates nine green belt areas

Knowsley Council has formally adopted its Core Strategy which sets out how the Merseyside planning authority will deliver 8,100 new homes and develop 164-hectares of employment land by 2028. The strategy, found to be sound by a planning inspector, will involve the release of nine areas of green belt land for strategic urban extensions.

View more information on the core strategy

 

London round-up

• Up to 360,000 extra homes could be created in London by redeveloping council estates to a higher density along street patterns, according to a government-commissioned report from real estate company Savills.
• Meanwhile a new report from Atkins has claimed that the capital is significantly underestimating the level of development required to keep up with the city’s growth over the coming decades. The report highlighted concern that official infrastructure strategies are falling significantly short of projected growth rates. The document forecast that the conurbation’s population will reach 12 million by 2050, rather than the 11.3 million anticipated in the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) London Infrastructure Plan.
• Recent blog by legal firm BDB’s infrastructure planning guru Angus Walker warns of trouble ahead over Heathrow expansion given current problems over air pollution in London and the prospect of legal action. View more information

 

Coventry land use strategies

Coventry City Council has approved for consultation a new draft local plan which identifies where up to 42,400 new homes could be built in and around the city over the next two decades.

The document sets out potential brownfield sites, a number of green belt locations within the city’s boundaries and at other sites beyond the city’s boundaries in Warwickshire.

The development strategy also highlights areas for new employment sites, services and infrastructure and proposals to further protect a number of key green areas by re designating them as local green space.

In a separate but related development car giant Jaguar Land Rover has announced its intention to invest more than £500m in its research and development complex at Whitley in addition to earlier plans to double the size of operations at the facility signalled last year.

View more information about the Coventry local plan

 

Mineral and waste planners like their jobs

Planners working in the minerals and waste sector have a high level of job satisfaction, according to a questionnaire survey conducted by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)

Some 78 percent of respondents said they “like their job” or “would not do anything else”, despite the sector often being perceived to be less attractive than other planning specialisms.

However the survey also highlighted that over 80 per cent of respondents pointed to a growing shortage of skilled and experienced mineral and waste planners, both in local authorities and the private sector.

View the press release

 

Go-ahead for Manchester housing

Manchester City Council has approved three residential-led projects across the city at its first planning committee of 2016, including the first phase of development at the former BBC Oxford Road site now rebranded Circle Square by joint venture Bruntwood and Select Property Group.

The first planning approval for the site involved two serviced apartment buildings, 12 and 15-storeys high, providing 600 flats targeting postgraduate and mature students. The blocks will include a business incubator unit and will be surrounded by public realm space.

At Whitworth Street and Princess Street, Urban & Civic has been granted permission for two residential towers totalling 238 flats, alongside a hotel with ground floor commercial uses, a restaurant and café, and public realm.

In Hulme the council has approved a development involving the building of 172 new homes for market rent on Royce Road and Leaf Street.

The project, known as ‘Hulme Living’, will see a mixture of two-bed flats and three-bed townhouses built across the two sites by housing association One Manchester.

View more information

 

Horsham business and science park ambition

West Sussex County Council has unveiled an ambitious project to transform a site vacated by pharmaceutical giant Novartis at Horsham into a science and business park, financed by housing.

The council has agreed to buy the eight hectare site at Wimblehurst Road. Subject to planning approval, two thirds of the site will be redeveloped as a science park, while one third will be set aside for housing.

The council is now working with architects and planners on designing a mix of research and laboratory floor space, office accommodation and start-up facilities.

Under the agreement with Novartis, all buildings on the site will be cleared except the locally important 1930s Art Deco building. That will be converted for residential use and the avenue of cedar trees leading to its door will also be protected.

View the press release

 

Rhymney Valley opencast mine appeal

Mining company Miller Argent has decided to appeal following Caerphilly Council’s rejection of its proposal for a 478 hectare opencast mine in the Rhymney Valley at Nant Llesg.

 

Legal round-up

• The High Court has dismissed Sainsbury’s and developer Eshton Gregory (Hebden Bridge) Ltd’s legal challenge to a  planning Inspector’s dismissal of their appeal over Calderdale Council’s refusal of planning permission for a new store and three flats and five town houses on the site of the former Hebden Bridge’s fire station at the heart of the town’s conservation area.
• NHS Property Services is mounting a legal challenge to Surrey County Council’s decision to register land in Leatherhead near a hospital as a village green.
• A property owner who put red and white stripes on her mews house in London has been ordered to comply with a section 215 notice issued by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and repaint her home, which is in a conservation area, white.

 

RTPI streamlines chartered membership

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is to streamline the ways that professionals can achieve chartered membership.

From January 2017 onwards, the requirements to become a chartered member (MRTPI), for those who do not follow the accredited Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) route (used by graduates of RTPI-accredited planning schools), will be changing to competency-based routes.

The RTPI is also re-designing its membership structure to ensure existing technical members have a clear route to achieve chartered status.

View the press release

 

 

Roger Milne

Planning minister Brandon Lewis has announced proposals to pilot competition in the processing of planning applications.

This move was signalled just past midnight on Tuesday in the Commons during the first session of the report stage of the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill.

Opposition MPs complained the plan would “weaken the accountability of local planning services” and risked undermining local planning departments.

The proposal to test whether planning could be speeded up if “alternative providers” handled planning applications is the subject of a number of amendments to the legislation proposed at the end of last year after the bill had completed its detailed scrutiny by a committee of MPs.

Lewis said the amendments would give the Secretary of State the power to introduce pilot schemes “for competition in the processing of applications for planning permission”.

The SoS would have the power to designate who could participate in a pilot which would be for “a limited period specified in regulations”.

He explained provisions in the bill would allow regulations to be made for the “setting, publishing and charging of fees by designated persons and planning authorities in the pilot areas, and for the refunding of fees in specific circumstances.

“They would also provide for the Secretary of State to intervene when he considers that excessive fees are being charged”.

The minister said regulations would be drawn up “to provide for the sharing of information between designated persons and planning authorities in pilot areas, and with the Secretary of State”.

Lewis stressed that the scheme would be confined to processing applications and would not mean competition in determining planning applications.

He told MPs: “Let me be clear: this is about competition for the processing of applications, not their determination.

“The democratic determination of planning applications by local planning authorities is a fundamental pillar of the planning system, and that will remain the case during any pilot schemes that the Secretary of State brings forward.”

Lewis insisted: “These new clauses will allow us to test, in specific areas of the country and for a limited period, the benefits of allowing planning applicants to choose who processes their planning application”.

He added: “That will lead to a more efficient and effective planning system, better able to secure the development of the homes and other facilities that our communities need and want.

“Introducing choice for the applicant enables them to shop around for the services that best meet their needs. It will enable innovation in service provision, bringing new resources into the planning system and driving down costs while improving performance.”

At the same session during the early hours of Wednesday (6 January) Lewis confirmed that  the Secretary of State’s scrutiny of appeals involving housing proposals in neighbourhood plan areas will continue for a further six months.

View a transcript of the debate

 

Roger Milne

David Cameron has committed to a new policy which will see the Government directly commissioning new affordable homes this year on publicly-owned land.

Initially this scheme will be piloted at four sites outside London where some 30,000 new homes will be provided, up to 40 per cent of which will be affordable ‘starter homes’.

The sites were named as:

• Connaught Barracks in Dover
• Northstowe in Cambridgeshire
• Lower Graylingwell in Chichester
• The Daedelus Waterfront development at Gosport.

This approach will also be used in at the Old Oak Common area in west London where a Mayoral Development Corporation has been established.

Ministers stressed that these initiatives would also provide opportunities for smaller building firms which cannot take on large housing projects.

The Government has also unveiled a £1.2bn ‘starter home’ fund to prepare brownfield sites for new homes.

Ministers insisted this would fast-track the creation of at least 30,000 new ‘starter homes’ and up to 30,000 market homes on 500 new sites by 2020 in a move designed to help deliver the commitment to create 200,000 ‘starter homes’ over the next five years.

The Prime Minister claimed these moves represented an approach not used on such a scale since the docklands regeneration instigated by Mrs Thatcher and the then environment secretary now Lord Heseltine back in the 1980s.

Meanwhile in a separate but related development the Government has provided nearly £6.3m in funding for 19 Housing Zones around the country designed to kick-start work on brownfield sites that will ultimately deliver thousands of new homes.

View the press release

 

Roger Milne

Ministers have begun consulting on proposals to reform the New Homes Bonus regime which could mean axing payments to planning authorities without a local plan and reducing payments from the current six year-period to just four or even less. Also under consideration is a reduction in payments for housing won on appeal.

In addition the consultation paper asks if there should be a baseline above which payments would be made (this might be based on a national figure or average local output over a number of years).

The Government highlighted it would be reviewing the regime as part of announcements made during the autumn statement last month.

The consultation document makes it clear that changes won’t come into force until 2017/18 and will be designed to “focus” options on the delivery of new homes and “freeing up resources to be recycled within the local government settlement to support authorities with particular pressures, such as adult social care, following the outcome of the 2015 Spending Review”.

Meanwhile the Department for Communities and Local Government has published provisional allocations for councils in England. In total some £293m worth of payments will be made in relation to 186,575 net additions to the housing stock (October to October) and 2,253 empty homes brought back into use.

Councils receiving the largest payments following the most recent year’s delivery are three in London ( Brent, Wandsworth and Tower Hamlets) as well as Wiltshire and Leeds.

View the consultation information

Roger Milne

Vast swathes of English countryside have been earmarked for potential shale gas development (and fracking). This week as part of the latest licensing round the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) announced which energy companies have been successful in obtaining onshore Petroleum and Development Licences (PEDLs).

Some 159 onshore blocks were up for grabs, three quarters of which involve proposed unconventional oil or gas exploration. None of the blocks are in Wales or Scotland.

Before a PEDL licensee can move beyond the exploration phase, a number of further permissions and consents are required for operations like drilling, fracking and production. These include planning permission and permits from the Environment Agency.

The offer of PEDLs follows a detailed environmental assessment of the proposed blocks under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010 which was subject to public consultation.

In a separate but related move MPs have voted to approve new regulations which allow drilling 1,200 metres below national parks, World Heritage sites, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The drill rigs involved will have to be positioned outside the boundaries of the designated protected areas.

View the press release

Roger Milne

Communities Secretary Greg Clark has rejected the advice of the inspector who held an inquiry into a recovered appeal involving outline permission for up to 200 new homes at Lydney in Gloucestershire and refused the proposals.

The scheme, proposed by Allaston Developments, included up to 20 serviced self-build plots, some 37 retirement flats, public open space and a community building.

Forest of Dean District Council had blocked the proposals. However at the inquiry the planning authority said it would not support its reasons for refusing permission as it couldn’t demonstrate a “robust” five-year supply of housing land.

Clark’s decision letter concluded that the appeal should be dismissed because of conflict with both the emerging Allocation Plan for the district and the emerging Lydney Neighbourhood Development Plan. The SoS also said the scheme was in conflict with policies in the existing Core Strategy.

Clark’s letter acknowledged that the proposals would increase the supply of market and affordable housing in the area.

But he insisted the conflict with both the local plan and the emerging neighbourhood plan as well as the adverse impact on landscape and local character as well as issues to do with traffic and air quality outweighed the benefits of the scheme.

View the decision letter

Roger Milne

New Welsh language policy kicks-in

New provisions to ensure the Welsh language is considered in the planning system in Wales came into force this week.

Under section 11 of the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 it is now a requirement that every planning authority when preparing or revising the local development plan gives consideration to how the policies and site allocations are likely to impact on use of the Welsh language in their area.

Section 31 clarifies that the language may be considered in decisions where it is material to the application. To coincide with this, the Welsh Government has issued a revised Technical Advice Note 20: Planning and the Welsh Language for a three-month public consultation.

View the press release

 

Prior approvals on the increase

Latest planning application statistics for England have highlighted a surge in bids for prior approval. The figures show there were 36,400 such application in 2014/15 and 21,900 in the first two quarters of 2015/16, up from 15,700 in 2013/14 and just 7,300 in 2012/13.

Of 10,800 applications received for prior approval for permitted development rights during July to September 2015, some 8,800 were approved without having to go through the full planning process and 2,000 were refused.

Between July and September 2015, district level planning authorities in England received 120,400 applications for planning permission, up one per cent from 118,700 in the corresponding quarter of 2014 and granted 98,700 decisions, up three per cent from the same quarter in 2014. Over the third quarter in 2015 planning authorities granted 12,200 residential applications, up 12 per cent on a year earlier.

In the year ending September 2015, district level planning authorities granted 366,000 decisions, up four per cent on the year ending September 2014. Some 46,200 of the granted decisions were for residential developments: 5,800 for major developments and 40,300 for minors.

View the statistics

 

DCO changes advice

The Government has issued new guidance on two types of change that may be made to a Development Consent Order (non-material or material) and the procedures for making such changes. The guidance covers the boundary between a material change and needing to make a new application.

In a related but separate move the Planning Inspectorate has issued a new advice note on the assessment of cumulative effects as part of an Environmental Impact Assessment.

The guidance has been produced following the Infrastructure Act 2015 (which amended the 2008 Act) and the subsequent 2015 amendments to The Infrastructure Planning (Changes to, and Revocation of, Development Consent Orders) Regulations 2011.

View the guidance

 

Urban study identifies gaps

A study from cross-party think tank Demos has identified a gulf between the socio-economic performance of English towns and their neighbouring cities.

Against a wide variety of critical social and economic measures including health, education and employment, the report finds that three in five English towns are falling behind their urban neighbours.

The report, Talk of the Town, mapped the fortunes of the satellite towns orbiting 21 of England’s largest cities.

Broadly, the study found towns in the Midlands are the best overall performers against their nearest cities. It also identified a substantial North-South divide in absolute socio-economic performance, affecting both towns and cities.

View the report

 

Clark refuses Bristol green belt solar farm

Communities Secretary Greg Clark has dismissed an appeal over a 7.7megawatt solar power project proposed for high-grade farmland in a green belt location at Iron Acton, Bristol originally refused by South Gloucestershire Council.

He agreed with the inspector who held the recovered appeal inquiry that the scheme represented inappropriate development, breached Core Strategy policies and could not demonstrate that lower-grade agricultural land had been considered.

View the decision letter

 

Land value guide

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published its latest set of values for both residential and agricultural land for each English district-level planning authority. The figures are purely for the purpose of policy appraisal.

View the guidance

 

Kent developments

• US hedge fund RiverOak has decided to use the Planning Act 2008 regime and apply for a Development Consent Order for the currently closed Manston Airport in a bid to safeguard the Kent facility for freight and executive aviation and associated activities. The company wants to compulsory purchase the site which has been touted for residential and industrial development. RiverOak has appointed Bircham Dyson Bell as its legal advisors.
• Robin Cooper, the chief executive of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC) has resigned. An interim chief executive will be appointed this month. The EDC was set up by ministers to deliver the country’s first new ‘garden city’ for 100 years on land in Kent round the Ebbsfleet international rail station in Dartford and Gravesham where some 15,000 new homes are proposed.
• Meanwhile a High Court judge has dismissed the challenge by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) over the decision by Dover District Council to approve a scheme providing over 600 new homes and a hotel at Western Heights and Farthingloe in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
• Taylor Wimpey has been granted outline planning permission for the redevelopment of the 31-hectare Shorncliffe Garrison site near Folkestone in Kent by Shepway District Council for a housing-led mixed-use scheme providing up to 1,200 homes, 18 per cent affordable.

 

Neighbourhood plan progress

The Government’s latest neighbourhood planning newsletter has revealed that all 126 referendums held so far have been successful. The most recent took place in Linton near Leeds and saw 96 per cent of voters say ‘yes’ to the draft NP on a turnout of 48 per cent. Over 25,000 people have now voted in NP referendums, average ‘yes’ vote was 89 per cent and average turnout was 33 per cent.

View the newsletter

 

West Midlands transport blueprint approved

Transport chiefs in the West Midlands have approved a strategic plan to help the region unlock its economic potential. The blueprint sets out the region’s transport strategy for the next 20 years.

It includes proposals for a fully integrated train, bus and rapid transit system, strategic road and rail improvements and a comprehensive cycle network, all underpinned by smart technology including ticketless travel and real time information.

The strategy, ‘Movement for Growth’ was the subject of a three month public consultation by the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority (ITA).

A key element of the plan is to help the West Midlands unlock the full economic potential of the HS2 high speed rail line which will link Birmingham to London in 2026 and later to Manchester and Leeds.

View more information

 

Clean air zones announced

The administration has announced plans to establish Clean Air Zones in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton by 2020.

 

Oxfordshire developments

• The inspector examining West Oxfordshire District Council’s draft local plan has told the planning authority it must consider withdrawing the strategy or do more work on the overall housing requirement. The inspector said the plan’s target of 525 new dwellings per annum was too low and needed to be much closer to the 660dpa figure recommended following the Strategic Housing Market Assessment endorsed by all the other Oxfordshire councils.
• Cherwell District Council has insisted that special circumstances justified outline approval for a technology business park at the 8.3-hectare site of a former rugby ground on the northern edge of Kidlington which is located in the Oxford green belt. The scheme will provide some 40, 000 square meters of production, laboratory, storage, office and ancillary floor space.
• The council is going to court over Gladman Developments’ proposals for 54 new homes at Hook Norton, Oxfordshire allowed on appeal.

 

Dorset local plan sound provided early review

The inspector examining North Dorset District Council’s Local Plan has endorsed the strategy as sound providing the plan period is extended by five years to 2031 and is subject to an early review starting this March.

View more information on North Dorset District Council’s Local Plan

 

Green light for Wellington development

Taunton Deane Borough Council has given developer C G Fry and Son Ltd outline planning permission for 650 new homes on the edge of Wellington, 25 per cent of which will be for affordable housing. The scheme forms part of a mixed-use urban extension allocated in the Somerset planning authority’s Core Strategy.

View the application, number 43/14/0130

 

Legal round up

• The owner of a nightclub in Brixton has been given permission to bring a judicial review challenge to Lambeth Council’s grant of planning permission for a housing development which the claimant, Louise Barron, believes would result in the club’s closure.
• A high court judge has ruled that Cornwall Council should have insisted on an environmental impact assessment before granting planning permission for a quarry near St Keverne which is expected to supply the Swansea Tidal Barrage project.
• The Scottish Government and energy company SSE have confirmed that they intend to appeal a legal ruling quashing a planned 67-turbine wind farm near Fort Augustus in the Scottish Highlands.
• Enfield Council in north London has failed in a legal action brought against the Transport Secretary over the number of trains per hour stopping at the nearest station to a major regeneration site.
• A High Court challenge against a plan to redevelop Undershaw, the former Surrey home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, has failed.
• Developers who clear-felled trees covered by a Tree Preservation Order at Blacknest Park near Ascot will have to replace the woodland as required by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead following an unsuccessful challenge in the Court of Appeal. 
• Developer Rosconn Group has launched a legal challenge over the adoption of Charnwood Borough Council’s Core Strategy and whether the Leicestershire planning authority’s five-year land supply position was adequately examined.

 

London round-up

• Plans have been submitted to Westminster Council for the redevelopment of the former Royal Mail sorting office in Paddington, west London which include a 254-metre high tower designed to provide 330 new homes, retail and commercial floorspace, restaurants and public realm works.
• The Port of London Authority (PLA) has published a report setting out a strategy for making the Thames cleaner, and increasing the use of the river for recreation and transporting goods and passengers. Several new piers are proposed.
• Proposals for a 61,000-seater stadium for Premiership club Spurs capable of hosting international sporting fixtures have been approved by Haringey Council. The development, which will replace the club’s current White Hart Lane home, will also see nearly 600 new homes, a 180-bed hotel, an extreme sports centre alongside a community health centre and a new public square.
• Plans to convert an iconic flour mill not used since the 1980s into a new centre for business and enterprise in east London have been given the go-ahead by the Mayor of London’s office.
• A new tech and creative hub for the east of the city with 454,514 square metres of business space and 3,000 new homes will be built on a 25-hectare site at Silvertown Quays in the Royal Docks. The land includes the derelict Millennium Mills which features regularly as a dystopian backdrop for films and videos including Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and Derek Jarman’s The Last of England.
• Communities Secretary Greg Clark has allowed on appeal a scheme to provide 28 new homes at a reservoir in West Hampstead, north London originally refused by Camden Council. He agreed with the inspector who held the recovered appeal inquiry.

 

Infrastructure commission chief named

Chancellor George Osborne has appointed Phil Graham as Chief Executive Officer of the National Infrastructure Commission.

He joins the new body from the Department for Transport, where he has worked on many of the UK’s most important infrastructure projects.

View the news story

 

More time for NPPF changes consultation

The Government has bowed to pressure and extended the period for consultation on its proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The new deadline for comments is 22 February.

View the consultation on proposed changes

 

HCA interim chairman chosen

Kevin Parry has been appointed interim chairman of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the Communities Secretary Greg Clark has confirmed

Parry, an existing board member will lead the HCA board for the period after current chairman Robert Napier stepped down at the end of December. He will continue the role until a chairman is appointed on a permanent basis and took up the position from 1 January 2016.

View the press release

 

Most popular place

Liverpool Waterfront has been crowned the overall winner in the nationwide competition organised by the Royal Town Planning Institute to show off the diverse places that planners and the planning system have created, protected and enhanced for communities. Over 11,000 people voted on a shortlist of 10 places.

View the press release

 

New Year’s Honours

Influential planners Alice Lester and Malcolm Sharp have won recognition for their contribution to planning in the latest New Year’s Honours.

Lester, programme manager at the Planning Advisory Service, was awarded an MBE as was Sharp, a former president of the Planning Officers Society.

Also honoured was John Worthington, director of the Academy of Urbanism and an Independent Transport Commission commissioner. He received an MBE for services to urban regeneration.

Peter Eversden, chair of the London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies, received an MBE for services to community engagement in planning.

Margaret Morgan, co-chair of the Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale Neighbourhood Plan Delivery Group Committee, received a British Empire Medal for services to the community in Berkshire.

View the full New Year’s Honours list 2016

 

 

Roger Milne