The Local Government Association (LGA) has stepped up its pressure on the Government to allow councils to set their own planning fees.
The Association is urging the administration to remove the cap introduced in 2012 when the Chancellor spells out the results of his spending review in the Autumn Statement due on 27 November. There is speculation that the Treasury, keen to see the pace of house building accelerate, is sympathetic.
The LGA said existing nationally-set planning fees had only covered around two-thirds of the actual costs faced by councils in handling planning applications since 2012.
The organisation which represents local authorities across England estimated that the shortfall had already cost councils £450,000 over the past three years and the cost of planning applications was increasing annually by around £150,000.
The LGA also stressed that two thirds of private sector respondents to a survey by the developers’ trade body the British Property Federation had indicated a willingness to pay higher planning fees to help planning departments provide an effective service.
LGA housing spokesman Peter Box said: “It is unacceptable for communities to keep being forced to spend hundreds of millions each year to cover a third of the cost of all planning applications.
Government should recognise the huge pressure this is placing on already stretched planning departments that are crucial to building the homes and roads that local communities need but which have seen 46 per cent reductions in funding over the past five years.”
He added: “The Spending Review should allow local authorities to recover the actual cost of applications and end such a needless waste of taxpayers’ money when developers are willing to pay more.”
Roger Milne
Much of the evidence base for employment land requirements in local development plans and used for planning determinations is out of date, research by consultancy Turley has shown.
The research highlighted that half of all local authorities in England have published evidence which predates the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012. Of those authorities that have published a local plan, 60 per cent used evidence that predated the framework.
The consultancy also reported that economically dynamic Local Enterprise Partnership areas, including those in the Thames Valley and across large parts of the Northern Powerhouse area, rely on some of the oldest evidence in relation to employment land.
Turley claimed that for one of the fastest evolving business sectors, logistics, the reliance on dated market evidence meant that current and emerging occupier requirements were not being met, often in the areas of highest demand.
The research was based on a survey of 326 local planning authorities across England. The survey was carried out over the period June to July 2015 with data captured from LPA’s last full employment land review or studies which included a forecast of future land requirements. The results represent a snapshot of published evidence as of June/July 2015.
David Smith, head of business space at Turley, said: “It is vital that planning for offices, logistics and other commercial uses is not overlooked in the dash to build more homes.
“For the UK to be a strong, growing economy we need an approach which provides space for workplaces as well as homes and this can only be done effectively if local authorities have up-to-date evidence on which to base their decision-making.”
Roger Milne
Planning minister Brandon Lewis has urged more councils to share planning services when he answered question in Parliament this week.
During oral questions in the Commons on Monday (9 November) Lewis was asked if he had a solution to the chronic shortage of good planners and the over-reliance on consultants.
Lewis said: “Local authorities should view their planning departments as the heartbeat of economic regeneration in their communities in terms of designing and building for businesses and homes.
“I would encourage local authorities to work together and to share services in the same way that some have shared chief executives and other parts of their management structure.
“They have not done that so much with planning yet, but that would be a good step towards building a strong resource.”
Later the minister pointed out that the Planning Advisory Service provided funding to help councils which moved to shared services.
He told MPs: “Planning authorities that have introduced new ways of delivering planning services have shown that performance can be improved while reducing costs. I hope that more will follow their lead.
We have put support in place through funding the Planning Advisory Service, and we are open to supporting planning authorities to deliver ambitious proposals through devolution deals.”
He added: “It is clear that local authorities that share services can make sure that they protect and improve front-line services, such as planning services, and can see savings of as much as 20 per cent on the work.”
View the parliamentary transcript
Roger Milne
Sheffield City Council this week started preliminary consultations on its new development plan which includes the possibility of providing thousands of new homes in a series of urban extensions.
The Sheffield Plan will cover the whole area of the so-called steel city except for the area in the Peak Park) and will consider development options up to 2034. It will replace the current core strategy which was adopted in 2009.
Under consideration as part of this exercise is a report from prize-winning consultancy Urbed which has recommended that some 100,000 new homes are built in and around the Sheffield conurbation including 30,000 outside existing built-up areas.
The report claimed that around 32,000 homes could be accommodated on existing brownfield land in the area and on brownfield land that was likely to become available over the 20-year plan period. It also suggested that a further 18,000 homes could be created through urban intensification, including the reuse of car parks, the subdivision of large homes and increasing the density of council estates.
The report proposed that the Neepsend and Attercliffe neighbourhoods could be returned to residential use. These areas are currently mainly in low density commercial use.
The report also stressed that consideration should be given to the creation of large urban extensions in Mosborough, Waverley, Bassingthorpe, Oughtibridge and Stocksbridge. These could accommodate some 25,000 homes, the report said.
It also made the case for creating a joint development corporation for Sheffield and Rotherham, with powers to plan development, borrow money and compulsorily purchase land.
View more information on the Sheffield plan
Roger Milne
Planning authorities in and around Cambridge, one of the fastest-growing areas of England, have increased their local plans’ housing target by 500 homes.
This is the result of extra work commissioned by Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Councils after planning inspectors suspended the examination of their strategies.
The inspectors questioned if more than the 33,000 homes put forward in the two Cambridgeshire council’s draft local plans were needed to meet local needs, and whether the strategy of focusing the majority of homes in new settlements and villages was sound.
Reports published this week (9 November) from independent experts have said that 33,500 homes would be needed by 2031 to meet local needs, just 500 more than originally put forward.
The reports also stated that the extra work commissioned has confirmed the two councils’ strategy to deliver growth through new towns and villages and protecting the green belt from significant releases was the right plan for the Greater Cambridge area.
Since the draft local plans were submitted, promoters of the new town north of Waterbeach and new village at Bourn Airfield have stated the developments could begin earlier. The reports recommend this approach.
To meet requirement for the additional homes needed by 2031, more land than currently earmarked for housing near Cambridge Airport is now proposed for development. The proposals could see 1,200 homes built north of Cherry Hinton and toward Teversham.
The two councils are planning consultation on these latest proposals starting next month (December) before submitting modification to the draft plans for consideration by the inspectors who are expected to resume examination of the strategies around Easter 2016.
View more information about the South Cambridgeshire District Council local plan
View more information about the Cambridge City local plan
Roger Milne
Decision on Taunton urban extension deferred
Members of Taunton Deane Borough Council’s planning committee have deferred a decision on a major mixed-use urban extension between Comeytrowe in Taunton and Trull after insisting the scheme was deficient in respect of highways, education, and health and access provision.
In a statement the Somerset council explained: “Whilst accepting that the site has been identified in the council’s core strategy, members felt that the master plan proposal was currently not adequate particularly in respect of infrastructure proposals for roads, schooling and health.
They have invited the consortium of developers to work with the council, the three Parish Councils and other key stakeholders on a revised master plan that will ensure the development is deliverable and sustainable.”
The consortium is hoping to build up to 2,000 new homes and provide employment floor space, a primary school, a park, a local centre and public open space.
TCPA report calls for 310,000 new homes a year
Figures just published show that young people across England are struggling more than ever to live independently because of the cost of housing and current shortages of new homes.
According to a new research project commissioned by the Town and Country Planning Association the housing requirement to meet projected household formation until 2031 is actually lower than previously anticipated because younger people are already finding they cannot afford to form independent households.
The research highlighted that the Government was already falling short of its targets to build new homes. Only 54 per cent of the homes required have been built since 2011.
To catch up by 2020 with the number of homes suggested by the projections over 310,000 homes a year over the next five years will be required, the report proposed.
The project ‘How Many Homes’ was funded by the Lady Margaret Patterson Osborn Trust, and Places for People.
The research, which drew on data from the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Office of National Statistics, was undertaken by Neil McDonald, (previously Chief Executive of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit) and Professor Christine Whitehead from the LSE.
Whitehall cuts accepted by DCLG, Defra and DfT
The Department for Communities and Local Government has agreed to cut 30 per cent from its budget over the next four years after reaching a provisional spending review deal with Chancellor George Osborne.
He signalled that three other Whitehall departments were in the same position: the Treasury, Transport and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Osborne insisted the savings would be made by a combination of “further efficiencies in departments, closing low-value programmes, and focusing on our priorities as a country.”
Cherwell custom-build LDO approved
Cherwell District Council has formally adopted a Local Development Order (LDO) for its Graven Hill custom-build project. Up to 1,900 new homes are set to be built on the former MOD site at Bicester in Oxfordshire.
House builders will have to comply with a master plan and design code but the LDO, the first of its kind at this scale in the UK, will allow “some individuality and variety” according to the council’s lead member for planning, councillor Michael Gibbard.
View more information on the Graven Hill custom-build project
Green-light for Bradford urban village
Proposals for a new £150m ‘urban village’ between Bradford and Shipley have been approved by Bradford City Council. The scheme, involves up to 1,000 new homes, a school, village centre and shops.
The 30-hectare New Bolton Woods scheme is a joint venture between the local authority and regeneration firm Urbo.
Sport England has objected to the plans because of the loss of two football pitches, triggering government consideration of the proposals.
View more information on the New Bolton Woods development
Prison programme to release urban housing sites
Chancellor George Osborne and Justice Secretary Michael Gove have unveiled proposals to build nine new prisons in a move which ministers say will allow the Government to close old Victorian prisons in city centres and sell the sites for housing.
The administration has claimed this will result in some 3000 new homes being built in urban areas. The Victorian prison site at Reading will be the first to be sold.
Five of the new prisons will be open before the end of this parliament, ministers insisted. The Government will also complete the new prison being built at Wrexham in north east Wales, and expand existing prisons in Stocken and Rye Hill over the next five years.
Pocket parks initiative
Community groups supported by local authorities have been invited to apply for a slice of £1.5m funding, which could see up to 100 under-used sites in deprived urban areas outside London turned into small parks.
The scheme to create so-called ‘Pocket Parks’ echoes a successful New York initiative which has been pioneered in London.
Proposals could include creating wildlife habitats, transforming run-down gardens or simply creating green oases in bustling neighbourhoods.
Pocket parks are defined for this programme as a piece of land of up to 0.4-hectares, although many are around 0.02-hectares, the size of a tennis court. The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a prospectus.
London round-up
- Hounslow Council in west London has given the green light to mixed use scheme in the High Street designed to provide over 134,000 square feet of commercial floor space comprising retail and restaurant use, a new multiplex cinema and 525 new homes, most is a 27-storey residential tower, and a new public square in Hounslow High Street,
- An Opportunity Area Planning Framework designed to deliver more than 25,500 new homes and create up to 65,000 jobs at Old Oak and Park Royal in west London has been approved and adopted by the Mayor of London.
- A joint venture set up last year to build homes at disused gasholder sites in London and the south east of England has announced plans to redevelop the site of the former Fulham Gasworks in south west London into a mixed-use scheme with up to 1,900 homes.
- Southwark Council has given the go-ahead for the redevelopment of Manor Place Depot, Walworth in south London. The approval includes listed building consent for the refurbishment of the existing Grade II listed Pool House and Wash Houses. The scheme will provide 270 new homes and 730 square metres of commercial floor space.
Energy project round-up
- More consultation into plans to frack for shale gas in North Yorkshire has started. Third Energy submitted a planning application to frack at a site near the village of Kirby Misperton in Ryedale in May. North Yorkshire County Council said it had requested further information from the company. This has prompted a further round of consultation.
- The community group behind a £1m hydro-electric scheme in Abingdon, Oxfordshire has scrapped its plans, citing financial and organisational problems partly prompted by changes in government support for community power projects. Abingdon Hydro had planning permission to put two 10-tonne hydrodynamic screws at the town’s weir at Abbey Meadow to generate electricity for up to 200 homes.
- Two more power plant schemes have submitted to the Planning Inspectorate as Nationally Significant Infrastructure projects. One is a proposal to convert two disused slate quarries in Snowdonia into a 99-megawatt pumped storage facility. The other is a refuse-burning power plant at Edmonton, north London which would produce 70-megawatts of electricity and low-carbon heat.
- Communities Secretary Greg Clark has dismissed an appeal over a three-turbine onshore wind project proposed for a landfill site at Workington, Cumbria. The scheme had been blocked by the county council. The inspector who held the recovered appeal had also recommended refusal. Clark’s decision letter agreed that there would be adverse visual impacts and harm to the setting of heritage assets. He also concluded that local community concerns over landscape and residential amenity had not been satisfactorily addressed.
Crawley local plan endorsed
Crawley Borough Council has announced it will adopt its new local plan next month (December) after the planning inspector who examined the strategy concluded it was sound subject to modifications which the planning authority has agreed. The land-use strategy will make provision for 5,100 dwellings in total over the plan period 2012-2030.
View more information on the Crawley local plan
Kent infrastructure spending gap identified
Long-term growth in Kent could be jeopardised by a gap between housing and infrastructure, according to a new report commissioned by Kent County Council.
The report highlights the significant growth anticipated in Kent over the next 16 years and identifies £6.74bn of infrastructure developments required to support approximately 160,000 new homes and over 135,000 jobs. It also recognises a funding gap of £2bn which, if not addressed, will impede the county’s growth.
View more information on the Kent County Council website
Merseyside devolution makes progress
The five council leaders of Merseyside plus Halton Borough Council in Cheshire have “agreed in principle” a deal with the Government to devolve more powers from Whitehall.
Part of the proposal will include plans for a directly elected mayor for the Liverpool city region.
The “devolution deal” will still need to be agreed by each of the six councils individually, with St Helens believed to be the most sceptical.
View more information on the BBC website
Key WI sites relisted
Four buildings with links to the Women’s Institute have been recognised to mark the organisation’s centenary. The West Sussex home of the WI’s first chairman and its training college in Oxfordshire are to be relisted on the National Heritage List for England. Their listings will now mention the WI.
The listed statuses of The Fox Inn in Charlton, West Sussex, where the first WI meeting was held exactly 100 years ago, and for an early WI building in Northumberland are also being updated.
Go-ahead for Newcastle redevelopment
Newcastle City Council has approved developer McAleer & Rushe’s £100m plans for a mixed-use scheme in the Newgate Street area of the city.
The proposals include a 269-bedrooms hotel, student housing and 2,000 square metres of commercial space for retail, leisure or professional services use.
The 575-bedrooms student housing element of the scheme will be operated by the UK’s leading provider of purpose built student accommodation, Unite Students.
Stafford link road approved
A major road scheme to ease traffic congestion in the centre of Stafford and support new homes planned for the western side of the town has been approved by Staffordshire County Council.
The Stafford Western Access Route will connect the A518 Newport Road with the A34 Foregate Street.
The project is backed by the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Enterprise Partnership, which secured funding through the Government’s Growth Deal.
View more information on the Staffordshire County Council website
Woking development makes waves
Woking Borough Council has voted to let New Vision Homes submit a planning application for 984 homes in, the Surrey town as part of a project which will involve the demolition of 600 properties on the existing Sheerwater Estate.
The plans involve at least 460 new affordable homes, a health centre and leisure and retail facilities. The demolition plans are being fiercely contested by some residents.
View more information on the Sheerwater regeneration
Top tree named
An ancient pear tree due to be chopped down to make way for the HS2 high-speed rail line has been voted the best tree in England following a poll organised by the Woodland Trust. The Cubbington pear tree is believed to have been growing near the Warwickshire village for more than 250 years.
Legal round-up
- A High Court judge has sentenced a man who refused to demolish a house he built behind straw bales in the Surrey Green Belt to three months in prison, suspended for six months.
- A row over plans by CG International for more than 500 new homes in an area of outstanding natural beauty in Kent has taken a new turn now the Campaign for Rural England has announced a judicial review challenge over the approval given by Dover District for a 130-bedroom hotel, 521 homes and 90 retirement homes.
- A West Midlands council has won a Court of Appeal land and planning battle over a site earmarked for a replacement mosque in Dudley.
- The Court of Appeal has rejected a challenge to Selby District Council’s adoption of its Core Strategy Local Plan, in a key ruling on the duty to cooperate.
- Two men have been ordered to pay more than £50,000 after running an unauthorised airport car park near Gatwick which had not been given planning permission by Mid Sussex District Council.
Starter homes will be part of the s106 mix insists minister
Planning minister Brandon Lewis has told Parliament that it will be up local councils to negotiate the mix of starter and affordable homes in s106 agreements.
But the minister made it clear that the Government would expect all reasonably sized schemes to include a proportion of starter homes.
The minister was quizzed by MPs on the Commons Communities and Local Government Committee about government policy on starter homes, which forms a key part of the administration’s new Housing and Planning bill, on Monday evening (9 November).
Lewis told the committee that the government is “very clear that an affordable home does not need to be limited to an affordable home for rent”.
But the minister added that the mix of tenures agreed in a section 106 deal would remain subject to negotiation between developers and planning departments. “A continuation of the current situation” he insisted.
Neighbourhood plans boost housing strategies
New neighbourhood planning powers are boosting plans for house building by more than 10 per cent, Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis has claimed.
This is based on data gathered by the Department for Communities and Local Government during May and June 2015 regarding areas with neighbourhood plans that have allocated housing sites and have been in force for over six months.
For these areas housing allocations in the neighbourhood plans were assessed against housing allocations in the corresponding Local Plan.
Roger Milne
The Government’s Housing and Planning bill faced heavy opposition in Parliament this week as the legislation comfortably negotiated its second reading stage in the Commons.
The bill is the first to be dealt with under the new rules which mean only English and Welsh MPs can vote on the bill as its measures don’t apply in Scotland.
Labour shadow communities secretary John Healey accused ministers of turning their back on localism. He argued the Conservatives were in such a panic about house-building performance they had drafted a bill which gave them “wide-ranging powers to impose new house building and override local community concerns and local plans.
“With a total of 32 new housing and planning powers for the centre, this legislation signals the end of localism.”
During nearly seven hours of debate in the Commons on Monday, MPs traded statistics about the impact of the bill’s provisions on social housing. Labour and Lib-Dem MPs predicted a “fire sale” of affordable homes.
And they lined up to question who would be able to afford the Government’s new “starter homes” quoting statistics produced by Shelter that a family living on the Chancellor’s new minimum wage of nine pounds an hour in 2020 would not be able to afford a starter home in 98 per cent of the country.
London MP Helen Hayes, a former planner, complained: “This Bill lacks any vision for planning, regarding it as simply a constraint to development.
“Through a multitude of different measures, including “in-principle” planning consent, the removal of the need for section 106 contributions from starter home developments and the provision for Secretary of State call-in of planning decisions, this bill will take power away from our local communities, while also removing vital checks on the quality and sustainability of development.”
Former Conservative housing minister Mark Prisk voiced concern over planning department staffing. “In some authorities, the system is grinding to a halt because of the lack of planning officers able either to produce a local plan or to drive forward negotiations with experienced developers.”
Communities Secretary Greg Clark insisted the Government’s proposals would make sure that the planning system was “speedier and more accommodating of the need for more homes, especially on brownfield sites”.
He told MPs: “We have built 260,000 affordable homes, nearly a third of them in London, and in the next five years we will build 275,000 more, the most for 20 years.”
View a transcript of the debate
View more information on the Housing and Planning bill
Roger Milne
Chancellor George Osborne has committed to spending £100bn on new UK infrastructure over the lifetime of the current Parliament.
That commitment to new roads, rail, flood defences and key energy projects came as he named the members of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) and spelled out in more detail the Commission’s initial terms of reference.
Osborne has made it clear that infrastructure expenditure will be a key element of the Government’s current spending review, the results of which will be published later this month in the Autumn Statement.
A suite of asset sales which the Treasury expects to raise billions of pounds is being identified which will be ploughed back into infrastructure projects. More details will be announced in the Statement.
Osborne announced that seven “commissioners” will serve alongside NIC chair Lord Adonis. They are:
- Lord Heseltine, former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister
- Sir John Armitt CBE, former chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority and author of the eponymous review into infrastructure planning commissioned by the Labour Party
- Professor Tim Besley CBE, professor of economics and political science at the London School of Economics
- Demis Hassabis, vice-president of engineering at Google
- Sadie Morgan , design panel chair of HS2
- Bridget Rosewell OBE, former chief economist to the Greater London Authority
- Sir Paul Ruddock, chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Commission’s initial focus will be in three key areas. These are:
- Northern connectivity, particularly identifying priorities for future investment in the North’s strategic transport infrastructure to improve connectivity between cities, especially east-west across the Pennines
- London’s transport system, particularly reviewing strategic options and identifying priorities for future investment in large scale transport improvements, on road, rail and underground, including Crossrail 2
- Energy, particularly exploring how the UK can better balance supply and demand, aiming for an energy market where prices are reflective of costs to the overall system.
Roger Milne
The Government has clarified its new proposals for including new homes in individual development consent orders (DCOs) and confirmed that the maximum number of permanent homes will be 500.
New draft guidance just published said ministers won’t limit the types of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) that will be allowed to include homes.
The guidance said homes would be allowed if they are “close to” the proposed infrastructure or if there is a functional need for permanent homes in cases where homes are required for construction workers or operational reasons.
Housing “up to one mile away from any part of the infrastructure for which consent is being sought” will be considered close enough to the infrastructure to be included in a NSIP, the guidance said.
However, where “a large amount of housing” is proposed to meet a functional need, the guidance said “it may be more appropriate for this to be in a location that is not in the immediate vicinity of the infrastructure project”.
The advice said fewer homes would be considered appropriate where policies like those protecting green belt land and heritage assets indicate that development should be restricted. Homes included on the basis of proximity would be expected to include affordable housing and “an element of starter homes”.
“It will be open to the Secretary of State to grant consent for the infrastructure, but refuse consent for some or all of the housing” noted the guidance.
Roger Milne
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has allowed on appeal outline proposals for a 39-home residential development on the edge of a Northamptonshire village. The scheme was in conflict with the emerging East Barton Neighbourhood Plan (NP). The proposals had been originally blocked by Wellingborough Borough Council.
Intriguingly the decision letter was issued on the day the NP referendum was held. Some 92 per cent of those who voted backed the East Barton NP on a turnout of nearly 28 per cent of those eligible to vote.
The inspector who held the recovered inquiry recommended the appeal should succeed. The Secretary of State agreed with the inspector that the planning authority could not demonstrate a five-year supply of housing land.
And like the inspector he argued that the “limited” harm to the landscape of the scheme was mitigated by the proposed containment of the development by existing hedging, a road and allotments.
The decision letter noted that the scheme was both in conflict with the development plan and the NP. However the SoS acknowledged that the development plan was out of date, the NP had not been “made” and given the absence of a five year supply of sites, the relevant NP policies for the supply of housing could not be considered up to date.
Clark acknowledged that that the conflict with the emerging NP should be given significant weight given the support for the plan locally and its advanced stage.
Nevertheless the SoS concluded that the harm identified was “insufficient to significantly and demonstrably outweigh the acknowledged benefits of this sustainable development”.
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 