We’re entering the later stages of testing on the new Planning Portal site now and I thought I’d take the wraps off some of the new features.
First up are the application forms themselves.
The new forms are adaptive, meaning questions appear and disappear based on the answers you give – in other words you only answer the questions that are relevant to your application.
Naturally, the forms still follow the national question set approved by DCLG and are accepted by every LPA in England and Wales.
I thought I’d show you how we’ve addressed some known issues on the forms in a few areas: materials, hours of opening and the certificates.
The materials question has long been a bit of an issue and we’ve given a lot of thought to how to improve it. We’ve made it easier to add materials that are relevant (and only relevant) to your application. Take a look at the short video to see how it works (note: there’s no sound in the video).
Secondly we’ll take a look at one of the more complex questions to complete – hours of opening.
Currently this is a very long question with all entries for each kind of use case on screen by default, resulting in a cluttered user experience.
Again we’ve applied the principle that the form should work for you – not the other way around.
You select only those use cases that are relevant to your application. You can select the correct hours of opening either by clicking on the clock icon in the relevant field and selecting the time or by typing the exact time you need.
We think it results in a more usable and cleaner experience.
Thirdly, we’ve made some improvements to the certificates.
Users had complained about a persistent validation error whereby one certificate would be partially completed before the applicant realised that a different certificate should be used.
In this case the system would record two versions of two certificates causing some confusion when it came to submit the application as it wasn’t obvious which part hadn’t been completed.
Now if you swap certificates the earlier version is wiped from the system resulting in quicker validation and application submission, saving you time and money.
Finally, at least for this blog post, the forms are responsive. This means they can be viewed and work properly on mobile devices. We live in an increasingly mobile-dominated world so making it easier to access your forms on the go was a key consideration.
There are many more improvements in the forms but throughout development our focus has remained on providing continuity for our customers. Everything has been refreshed but you won’t feel lost or need to ask directions.
We’ve applied best design practice but we’ve also listened to user comments for many years and we’re very excited to finally be able to pay you back for your feedback and patience.
The Government’s flagship Housing and Planning bill completed its passage through the Commons this week unscathed. No opposition amendments were successful during the legislation’s report and third reading stages. The measures will now be scrutinised by the Lords.
The bill made history as the first to be considered under the new procedure whereby measures affecting just England are voted on only by English MPs.
Planning minister Brandon Lewis called the legislation “an historic bill in many ways. It will put homeownership within the grasp of generations that have only dreamed for many years that it could be possible. It will deliver a planning system that is the envy of the world. It will get Britain building again.”
Labour’s John Healey MP complained the legislation was “ a bad bill; it is now a very bad bill, made much worse by amendments forced through at the last minute after the Committee’s line-by-line scrutiny”.
Opposition MPs accused the Government of ending long-term rented housing and presiding over the loss of genuinely affordable homes, an issue some Conservative MPs raised.
Healey insisted. “The bill sounds the death knell for social housing. Starter homes will be built in place of affordable council and housing association homes, both to buy and to rent. Councils will be forced to sell their best properties and housing associations will not replace many of their right-to-buy sales with like-for-like homes. “
He predicted the loss of at least 180,000 genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy over the next five years. And he questioned the efficacy of an eleventh-hour amendment supported by the Government which is intended to ensure that proceeds from the sale of vacant high-value assets should be used to provide new affordable homes in London on a two-for-one basis.
Healey added “We have tried to stop the worst of the plans, but Tory ministers and back benchers have opposed our proposals to give local areas the flexibility to promote not just starter homes but homes of all types, depending on local housing need; to make starter homes more affordable and protect and recycle taxpayers’ investment; to allow local areas to protect council and housing association homes with a proper replacement of each; to limit any automatic planning permission from ministers for brownfield land; and to protect stable family homes for council tenants.”
View more information about the Housing and Planning bill
Roger Milne
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has allowed two appeals involving major housing developments, one in Norfolk and the other near Lewes in East Sussex. In both cases the SoS accepted the recommendation of the inspectors who held the public inquiries into plans for a combined total of 760 new dwellings. Both schemes were in locations covered by neighbourhood plans.
In respect of the Lewes proposals (for 110 dwellings at the village of Ringmer) the scheme was partly in conflict with the neighbourhood plan (NP). However Clark agreed the scheme could go ahead as the site was allocated for housing in the NP albeit for 24 fewer units. Clark said the proposals did not represent a “significant” uplift.
The larger scheme involved proposals from developer Land Fund Ltd for an urban extension providing up to 650 new homes, a third affordable, as well as community and employment facilities at land east of the A47 and to the south of the A11 at Cringleford, Norfolk originally refused by South Norfolk District Council.
The decision letter noted that the district council could not demonstrate a five year supply of housing land and that the land was allocated for new housing under the made neighbourhood plan.
In the case of the Ringmer scheme the SoS agreed with the inspector that the proposals would be a sustainable development and contribute to the provision of both market and affordable housing in the area.
The location is part of a wider area covered by an emerging local plan under preparation jointly by the South Downs National Park Authority and a number of local planning authorities including Lewes District Council which had earlier refused the project.
View the recovered appeal for land north of Bishops Lane, Ringmer, East Sussex
Roger Milne
The Government has launched a consultation on the governance and general modus operandi of the newly minted National Infrastructure Commission.
The commission is expected to produce long-term needs assessments and detailed reports on specific issues. The former will be known as the National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA). The latter will be a series of priority infrastructure studies.
The sectors it will cover are the same as the Planning Act 2008 (energy, transport, water, waste water and waste) plus flood defences and digital communications.
What the commission will not do is reopen existing programmes like Smart Metering, the Roads Investment Strategy or the rail equivalent nor the recent decision of the independent Airports Commission.
The Government won’t have to do what the commission recommends, but it will have to say either how else it will meet the identified needs, or how it thinks the assessment is wrong. If the recommendations of a priority infrastructure study are endorsed by ministers, they become government policy and will be known as Endorsed Recommendations (ERs).
It is expected that ERs will incorporated into revised NPSs by government departments and will be material considerations when considering planning applications.
The commission’s remit will be set by the Chancellor and will be fiscal and economic. The Government has indicated that the commission will cover UK government areas, but can be invited by devolved administrations to work on their areas too.
Roger Milne
The PM has unveiled an initiative to target the country’s 100 worst housing estates and redevelop them. This could involve complete demolition and rebuilding in some cases.
A new Advisory Panel will be established, chaired by the indefatigable Lord Heseltine which will draw up a list of post-war estates across the country that are “ripe for re-development”.
The panel will work with up to 100,000 residents to put together regeneration plans. “For some, this will simply mean knocking them down and starting again. For others, it might mean changes to layout, upgrading facilities and improving local road and transport links” explained David Cameron.
The panel will also establish a set of binding guarantees for tenants and homeowners so that they are protected if regeneration work means they have to move out.
This initiative will be financed through a new £140m fund that would, said, Cameron, “pump-prime the planning process, temporary re-housing and early construction costs”.
He promised that this estates regeneration strategy would “sweep away” planning blockages and reduce “political and reputational risk for projects’ key decision-makers and investors”.
The PM added: “The mission here is nothing short of social turnaround, and with massive estate regeneration, tenants protected and land unlocked for new housing all over Britain, I believe that together we can tear down anything that stands in our way.”
Roger Milne
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Roger Milne
So 2016 is already in full swing and I hope you have all returned refreshed and ready for a busy year ahead!
While most of the country was tucking into to its Christmas turkey and mince pies, watching Star Wars and celebrating the new year, our intrepid team were busy beavering away, continuing the rigorous testing on our new site to make sure it’s ready for launch early this year.
From next week, I’ll start to unveil it to you. We’re really pleased with how it’s shaping up and hope you will be too.
Before I go, a quick update for all you stats fans out there. Last year saw more than 500,000 applications submitted via the Portal to every local authority in England and Wales, with the busiest day topping more than 3,000 applications.
Here’s to a happy, healthy and productive 2016 for all.
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
