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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
As 2015 draws to a close I thought I’d look back at a busy and momentous year for the Planning Portal.
Away from the day-to-day business of running the website and engaging with customers and stakeholders, it’s fair to say that for the first three months of 2015 most of the Portal team was pre-occupied with the move from Government into the private sector.
The Portal had been in DCLG (formerly ODPM and formerly DTLR) since 2001 – and some of the team had been with it since then.
We left behind many friends and colleagues when we finally moved out of the public sector in mid-March.
DCLG remains a part of the joint venture with our parent company TerraQuest but moving into the commercial world felt like a breath of fresh air and reinvigorated the team in a new office and with a new website and vision to deliver.
Looking ahead at 2016, we can’t wait to get the new website live. We’re incredibly excited about the new service and the roadmap for service delivery in 2016. As I mentioned in an earlier post we’ll be delivering a host of new products next year.
In addition to the new website, next year we’ll be rolling out:
- A seamless and integrated planning and building control application service
- A suite of tools to make the application service work even better for professionals
- An improved range of online payment options to address validation issues – including a secure method for applicants to pay directly for applications submitted by their agent
- An intuitive, redesigned interactive house
- A facility for LPAs to increase supporting document file sizes – where they are able to process them
One thing that won’t be changing is our commitment to working with our customers and stakeholders to deliver the best service we can.
This commitment to working closely with LPAs, professionals and the general public has seen over 460,000 planning applications submitted through the Portal this year alone and we project over 525,000 applications will be sent through our system in 2016.
As a final sign off for 2015 I’d just like to extend my thanks, and the gratitude of the entire Planning Portal team, for your support in 2015.
We hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2016.
Historic England has published revised guidance on the impact of tall buildings amid a surge in applications for new skyscrapers.
The Government’s statutory advisor on heritage issues said tall buildings should make a positive contribution to city life but warned they can also seriously harm places.
“England has seen many examples of tall buildings that have had a lasting, adverse impact on the historic environment”.
The reshaped guidance, last published in 2007, stressed the need to use local plans to assess which areas, if any, were appropriate for tall buildings.
“Tall buildings should reflect a positive, managed approach to development, rather than being the result of speculative applications for development.
“The advantages of including tall buildings policies in local plans include identifying the role and areas appropriate for tall buildings as part of an overall vision for a place and protecting the historic places that make an area special.”
The advice said: “A successful urban design framework identifies the roles and characters of different areas, including their historic interest such as scale and height, landmark buildings and their settings, including important local views and panoramas.”
Historic England has also emphasised the importance of considering internal and external public space “as part of a well-designed public realm. Consideration of the effect on the local environment is also important, such as overshadowing, light pollution and the micro-climate around the base of such buildings.”
Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, warned: “There are many tall buildings being proposed at the moment, particularly in London, that could have a profound effect on the character of the place where people, work and live.
“London’s historic environment is one of our greatest assets, culturally, socially and economically. But it is at risk of being badly and irrevocably damaged.”
Roger Milne
MPs last week completed their line by line scrutiny of the Government’s flagship housing and planning bill. The amended legislation has emerged unscathed from opposition attempts to change the measures. The bill will now have its report stage in the Commons on 5 January in three weeks’ time before being passed on to the Lords.
During the final exchanges last Friday MPs queued up to urge ministers to ensure planning departments were better resourced, including allowing councils to set their own planning charges.
Planning minister Brandon Lewis reminded them that section 303 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 already provides for the Secretary of State to permit local planning authorities to set their own level of fees up to cost recovery. “We are therefore already technically in possession of the powers to enable local fee setting” he insisted.
Lewis reiterated his stance that councils had sufficient means to resource planning departments which should be treated as a key local authority service. However he also chided local authorities for not doing enough to make savings by pursuing out-sourcing and shared services.
However the minister did promise to look at ideas about fast-track planning applications and having a more competitive planning process suggested by MPs. “That, rather than a focus on raising fees alone, is the type of innovative thinking that needs to be brought to the resourcing debate” he said.
He also committed to consider planning’s contribution to protecting live music venues, a high-profile issue at present. He said the minister for culture and the digital economy had arranged for him to meet music industry campaigners “shortly”.
The bill was amended by the Government to enable the Secretary of State to ask the Mayor of London or a combined authority to prepare a development plan. The Mayor or combined authority will be responsible for having the document examined and approving it.
Lewis explained that currently, where it is necessary for the SoS to intervene over a development plan, his only option is to take over responsibility for the process of preparing, examining and approving.
“Our proposals will move more power back to a local level and enable more targeted and appropriate intervention where a local planning authority has failed to take action to get a plan in place, despite having every opportunity to do so.”
The planning minister also made it clear that the Government had no intention of allowing the new concept of permission in principle (PiP) to be used for some of the things that people are concerned about, like fracking or waste development.
“We want to ensure that the local authorities are able to grant permission in principle for mixed-use developments that promote balanced and sustainable places” he stressed.
Roger Milne
The Government has announced it needs more time before it makes a decision on new airport capacity in south east England although it has signalled that all three short-listed schemes originally proposed by the independent Airports Commission (two at Heathrow, one at Gatwick) remain in the mix.
The Commission’s final report had recommended a new third runway at Heathrow. Ministers have now signalled that a final decision won’t be made until at the earliest next summer.
Last week’ statement by the Government was careful not to endorse any of the three shortlisted proposals. It noted that the commission said all three were viable.
“The Government will undertake a package of further work on environmental issues”. The statement said it was anticipated that this would “conclude over the summer”.
It added: “The Airports Commission published a large amount of very detailed analysis on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions for their three shortlisted schemes. The Government faces a complex and challenging decision on delivering this capacity.
“The Airports Commission’s air quality analysis will be tested using the latest projected future concentrations of nitrogen dioxide.
“The next step is to continue to develop the best possible package of measures to mitigate the impacts on local people and the environment.
“This will include a package for local communities to include compensation, maximising local economic opportunities through new jobs and apprenticeships, and measures to tackle noise.”
Ministers have decided on the “mechanism for delivering planning consents for airport expansion”. Unlike HS2 this will not involve a hybrid bill.
Instead there will be an ‘Airports national policy statement’ (NPS). Then the scheme promoter will have to apply for a development consent order under the Planning Act 2008 regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).
View the statement to Parliament
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 