I wanted to take a moment to update you on where we are with our service redevelopment plans. We’re currently in testing with the new site, rebuilt from the foundations upwards.
While we aimed to get this live this year we’re now looking at a launch in early 2016 but after a quick overview I hope you’ll agree it’ll be worth the wait. We understand how much business and government relies on the service so we don’t want to go live until we’re sure it’s right.
Over the next few weeks I want to give you a few insights into what we’ve been working on. I’m going to start with a sneaky peak at the new home page most importantly to talk a little about the values and principles we hold dear.
We pride ourselves on having worked in partnership with local authorities and professional applicants for the best part of 13 years. Now we are outside government I thought I’d talk about a few things that aren’t changing and then a few things that are.
Firstly, we intend to remain a national and free service – no upfront (or hidden) costs. We don’t intend to charge for applications. Yes, we obviously intend to raise revenues but these will be from value-adding services that complement and not replace the free, core services we’ve had your support developing.
Secondly, we’re proud to remain a trusted and integrated partner with every local planning authority in England and Wales.
Thirdly, we will continue to work with our corporate customers to drive the uptake of online applications through our dedicated account management team and our Smarter Planning scheme.
Now on to what is changing.
Early in 2016 we will deliver a faster, mobile-friendly website with better focus on key user tasks.
We’re not going to be turning the service on its head – we’ve had a strong focus on continuity in development. Everything will look familiar but we’ve introduced some exciting improvements to make the application process faster and easier.
It’s the Planning Portal you know and trust only better.
We’ll also be introducing some major new improvements in 2016 – all of which have been requested from you over the past months and years. So in no particular order, next year we plan to roll out the following…
- 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
Finally, here’s a sneak peak of our home page. We’ve worked hard to focus on the key user tasks.
We can’t wait to roll this out to you. I’ll be sharing more information and features in the coming weeks.
Two more devolution deals involving city regions were announced this week, one for the West Midlands and the other for Merseyside.
The West Midlands agreement signed between ministers and members of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Shadow Board will translate into over £1bn of government investment to boost the regional authority economy.
The deal puts Britain’s second city and the wider West Midlands in line to be governed by a metro-mayor. They will work together across an area that runs from Telford and Wolverhampton in the west to Coventry and Nuneaton in the east and from Tamworth in the north to Redditch in the south.
Voters in the West Midlands will now choose a directly elected mayor in 2017, who will take on a raft of new powers including local transport budgets and franchised bus services and increased responsibility over employment support and skills provision.
The Government has also backed key transport ambitions for the region including funding the Curzon Street Enterprise Zone extension and funding the Metro extension to Eastside, subject to a business case.
Planning powers will be conferred on the mayor, to drive housing delivery and improvements in housing stock, and give the same competencies as the Homes and Communities Agency.
The Government will also work with the WMCA Land Commission, has committed to support the first part of the HS2 Growth Strategy and will work with the Combined Authority through the development of the second Roads Investment Strategy to explore options for reducing congestion on the strategic road network in the West Midlands.
In respect of Merseyside the agreement is scheduled to provide some £900m in government spending to help unlock the economic potential of the River Mersey and its new super port as well as maximising the opportunities from HS2.
The deal also includes support for Liverpool’s strengths in attracting major international events, with backing for the city’s International Festival for Business as well as its cultural attractions.
The new, directly elected Liverpool City Region Mayor will act as chair to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and will exercise the following powers and functions devolved from central government:
- Responsibility for a devolved and consolidated local transport budget
- Responsibility for franchised bus services, which will support the Combined Authority’s delivery of smart and integrated ticketing
- Powers over strategic planning, including the responsibility to create a Single Statutory City Region Framework, a Mayoral Development Corporation and to develop with government a Land Commission and a Joint Assets Board for economic assets.
View the news stories on .GOV.UK
Historic devolution deal to power the Midlands Engine
Liverpool devolution deal boosts the Northern Powerhouse
Roger Milne
Andrew Adonis, interim Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, has set out his organisation’s immediate priorities and launched a major call for evidence which focuses on three of the UK’s most critical infrastructure challenges.
The call for evidence puts the spotlight on:
- 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 for future investment in large scale transport improvements on road, rail and underground including Crossrail 2
- Energy: Reviewing how the UK can better balance supply and demand.
The call for evidence will close on 8 January 2016. The Commission has been asked to publish its report on these three areas before next year’s Budget. It will welcome submissions from local government, NGOs, academics and all interested parties involved with infrastructure provision.
In a related development ministers have decided to merge the Major Projects Authority and Infrastructure UK to create the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA).
The IPA will bring together government expertise in the financing, delivery and assurance for projects, which range from large scale infrastructure schemes such as Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel to major transformation programmes such as Universal Credit.
This new body will be formally created on 1 January 2016 and will report to both the Chancellor and the Minister for the Cabinet Office. Its first chief executive will be the existing chief executive of the MPA, Tony Meggs.
Roger Milne
Over the last decade 12,500 new homes and businesses have been built in coastal areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which are at risk of significant erosion or flooding, according to a report compiled for conservation charity National Trust (NT).
It has urged greater action from the Government and environmental agencies to make sure all coastal areas are ready for the challenges presented by more frequent sever storm and rising sea-levels. The NT pointed out that coastal development had gone ahead despite strong official advice to the contrary.
The report also highlighted that only one in three coastal planning authorities in England have up-to-date planning policies in place to deal with the impact of climate change caused by global warming.
The Trust has argued for what it called a bolder and more imaginative approach to coastal management, one that relied more on understanding how nature works and is based on adaptation rather than engineered defences.
The report said this would mean an end to the ineffective cycle of continually rebuilding concrete sea defences and instead relocating buildings, infrastructure and habitats to safe areas further inland.
Phil Dyke, Coastal Marine Adviser at the charity, said: “We need to actively transition from maintaining old defences to working with natural processes, where and when it’s appropriate, to conserve the beauty and wildlife of our coastline.”
Roger Milne
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has called for an overhaul of the way local authorities set housing targets after claiming the present system led to countryside being lost unnecessarily.
The pressure group claimed in a report that research it has commissioned showed that local authorities were being asked to base their plans on aspiration rather than need. This resulted in ever higher housing targets and the consequent unnecessary release of countryside for development without an increase in overall house building.
CPRE commissioned Housing Vision, housing market consultants, and Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, to review the methodologies used to determine “objectively assessed need” for housing since the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012.
CPRE insisted there were a large number of problems with how the targets are calculated and said the research found a lack of clear guidance in the process, a lack of objectivity in the calculations, and a lack of concern for land availability and environmental impacts.
The organisation said the research demonstrated that the unrealistic targets were putting undue pressure on the countryside. “Setting targets far higher than can be realistically built just means that developers have more sites to choose from: as static building rates show, higher targets do not mean faster delivery” argued CPRE.
Roger Milne
The Department for Communities and Local Government must work with local areas to strengthen local scrutiny and accountability arrangements as City Deals are implemented, MPs have insisted.
In a report on the first wave of City Deals, the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee voiced concern over who was accountable for public funds devolved through this devolution. This issue was particularly important for devolved healthcare spending, it said.
The all-party committee was also concerned at a lack of monitoring and evaluation in the first wave of deals. This had made it difficult to assess their overall effectiveness.
MPs were critical of the fact that the administration could not explain clearly and simply whether responsibility for the outcomes of individual City Deal programmes rested with local or central government.
MPs proposed DCLG should agree a common approach to measuring and evaluating the outcomes of growth programmes, including job creation, with other government departments and local areas. This was needed “to ensure one geographical area is not ‘growing’ at the expense of another” argued the MPs.
Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC, said: “The fact that the Government cannot adequately explain where responsibility lies for the success or failure of City Deal programmes should sound an alarm.”
The Commons is currently considering the government’s latest legislation on this front, the cities and local government devolution bill.
View more information about the cities and local government devolution bill
Roger Milne
House-building booms
House-building in England during 2014-15 was up by 25 per cent on the previous year, according to official figures.
Data released last week by the Department for Communities and Local Government also showed the highest annual percentage increase in net additional homes for 28 years.
In addition the statistics indicated that the number of Right to Buy sales had risen by five per cent over the preceding 12 months.
These figures showed that annual housing supply in England amounted to 170,690 net additional dwellings in 2014-15, a 25 per cent increase in net additional dwellings from 2013-14.
The 170,690 net additions figure for 2014-15 comprised 155,080 new build homes, 4,950 additional homes resulting from conversions, 20,650 additional homes resulting from change of use, 630 other gains and a loss of 10,610 homes through demolitions.
Since 2010 there has been a net increase in housing supply of 704,310 new dwellings across England. The Government claimed the figures were evidence that changes to housing and planning policy was having an impact.
Blackpool Airport gains Enterprise Zone status
Blackpool Airport has been given Enterprise Zone status. This will pave the way for the first planning application to be submitted, a proposal for energy headquarters for Lancashire.
Enterprise Zone status, which comes into effect in April 2016, will transform the area into a key employment site with the potential of nearly 140 new businesses and as many as 3,000 new jobs up to 2030.
The airport, which shut last year, has become a new arm of the Lancashire Enterprise Zone currently made up of sites in Warton and Salmesbury.
The Blackpool Airport corridor site provides five development zones capable of supporting some 175,000 square metres of activity.
The layout of the site has been designed so that commercial airport use of the site in the future remains a possibility, particularly with proposals for a new passenger terminal and the runway remaining in place The green belt status of some areas of the site is unaffected by the EZ designation.
Chippenham sites plan criticised by inspector
Wiltshire Council has agreed to review key elements of a draft site allocations plan for Chippenham after a planning inspector raised “fundamental concerns” over the adequacy of the site selection procedure adopted by the planning authority.
At issue was the ranking exercise used, the adequacy of the sustainability appraisal and question marks over deliverability.
The inspector said substantial further information and work was needed which meant the public examination should be suspended for perhaps six months.
A Wiltshire Council spokesman said: “We followed an approach agreed by a previous core strategy inspector. However it became apparent early on that this inspector had concerns with elements of the process.
“The council remains committed to delivering a plan and is keen to develop a process that fully allays the inspector’s concerns. We are considering our response and expect to respond to the inspector around the end of the month.”
Fund to tackle ‘beds-in-sheds’
Ministers have announced a new £5m fund to help councils tackle rogue landlords and crack-down on ‘beds in sheds’. Councils can use the money to:
- Increase inspections of property
- Carry out more raids
- Initiate more enforcement action and prosecutions
- Demolish sheds and buildings that are prohibited.
Turbine trouble in Scotland and England
Scottish minsters have refused consent for a 22 turbine wind farm located at Sallachy and Duchally estate in central Sutherland and a 23 turbine wind farm situated at Glencassley Estate, by Lairg also in Sutherland.
Ministers decided the projects would have an unacceptable impact on a National Scenic Area (NSA) and the Reay-Cassley wild land area.
Meanwhile south of the Border Communities Secretary Greg Clark has refused another two onshore wind projects.
This time the schemes, each for a single turbine, were on neighbouring farms at Thorpe Satchville near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Both had also been the subject of a legal challenge.
In the case of the proposal for Hall Farm, which had been built, the inspector who had held both recovered appeal hearings had recommended the appeal should be successful. In respect of the Park Farm scheme he recommended dismissal of the scheme.
Clark determined that neither turbine should be allowed, citing conflict with local development policies, the cumulative effect when taken into consideration with other projects and the fact local concerns had not been addressed.
Three more neighbourhood plans voted through
Three more neighbourhood plans made the grade last week after referendums including one (for Elkesley in Nottinghamshire) which was the first for anywhere in that county and the first involving Bassetlaw District Council. On a 36 per cent turn-out the strategy polled a swingeing 93 per cent in favour.
The other two plans were for South Wootton in west Norfolk and Ringmer near Lewes in East Sussex. The former polled 90 per cent approval on a 23 per cent turn-out. The latter came home comfortably with 92 per cent voting yes on a turn-out of 42 per cent.
View more information on the local plans:
South Wootton Parish neighbourhood plan
Transport moves
- A multi-million pound project to extend the Nottingham tram system to Derby is being treated as a “priority” for the devolution package under consideration by East Midlands local authorities The tram scheme, which currently serves the Nottingham area, would also run to East Midlands Airport and the proposed HS2 station at Toton.
- Oxfordshire County Council has started consulting on two route options for a so-called South East Perimeter Road in Bicester. The new road would support employment and housing growth in the town and relieve pressure on the A41.
- Leeds City Council starts public consolations shortly on three options for improving access to Leeds Bradford Airport. Two would see the creation of a new link road while the alterative would involve widening existing roads and upgrading junctions. The project could cost between £15m and £75m.
- A 46-strong team has been appointed as the independent design panel that will support the High Speed 2 (HS2) project. The Panel is chaired by Sadie Morgan, a founding director of dRMM Architects who will act as the project’s independent advisor.
- Bath and North East Somerset Council has agreed in principle on a new park-and-ride site on the outskirts of the city but has deferred a decision of the exact location at Bathampton Meadows. The council will review the three alternatives. Local residents are concerned the proposed facility could compromise Bath’s World Heritage Site status.
Energy developments
- Plans for a major new energy infrastructure project linking Great Britain’s electricity transmission network to France will go on display at a number of venues in the Fareham and Gosport areas of Hampshire. The high voltage direct current (HVDC) 1,000 megawatt power link will involve sub-sea cables under the Channel between Hampshire and Normandy and a convertor station at the Daedalus airfield near Fareham.
- Doncaster Council has voiced concern over potential health and safety issues at the Hatfield Colliery site in the wake of Historic England’s decision to spot-list the former colliery’s two headstocks as Grade 11 structures. The South Yorkshire planning authority says it faces a £1m bill to make the structures safe. They were due to be demolished.
- Hinkley & Bosworth Borough Council has approved proposals for two separate solar power projects on Leicestershire farmland with a combined capacity of nearly nine megawatts.
New Truro stadium inches closer
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has decided not to call-in proposals for a new 4,000-seater stadium which Truro City Football Club wants to build which would be paid for by the redevelopment of its existing home in Treyew Road as a retail park.
SuDS advice
What is claimed to be the UK’s most comprehensive guidance on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) has just been published by construction industry body CIRIA. The advice focuses on the cost-effective planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of SuDS.
Space shaping
Fields in Trust, the successor to the National Playing Fields Association, has published its latest and most up to date guide to open space provision and design.
Called ‘Guidance for Outdoor Sport and Play: Beyond the Six Acre Standard’ the publication is aimed at local planning authorities, developers, planners, urban designers and landscape architects involved in the planning and design of outdoor sport, play and informal open space.
Reading BC mulls further controls on HMOs in conservation areas
Further measures to curb the number of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Reading’s conservation areas are being considered by the borough council. These include the making of a ‘non-immediate Article 4 Direction’ to remove permitted development rights to convert property into HMOs.
While this will not ban the future creation of HMOs it means planning permission will be required. There is already an Article 4 Direction in place for the Jesse Terrace area covering all external alterations.
Kent round-up
- An egg producer has withdrawn plans to build a huge chicken farm in Kent big enough to accommodate 64,000 birds. The company, Fridays Ltd, has decided not to proceed with the scheme earmarked for a site on the outskirts of Hormonden claiming the local planning authority, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, wanted further technical material to support the application.
- Sevenoaks District Council has announced it is starting work on a new master plan as part of proposals to regenerate Swanley and Hextable which will include a major revamp of Swanley’s town centre and its ageing shopping centre. The council has been approached by U + I Group (formerly called Development Securities) the major landowner in Swanley town centre. The company has signalled interest in redeveloping the centre with a mix of retail and business space as well as new housing and a new hotel.
Capital development
- Kingston Council has confirmed that a developer is eyeing up the possibility of building hundreds of flats as well as providing a swimming pool, leisure centre and a football pitches at the Chessington Golf Centre which is located in green belt on the south west flank of London.
- Haringey Council has announced plans to create a company to help build 5,000 new homes across 20 different council sites in Tottenham and Wood Green in north London.
- The City of London Corporation has approved Lipton Rogers’ 62-storey skyscraper proposed for 22 Bishopsgate in the heart of the Square Mile.
Legal round-up
- The Court of Appeal has granted Central Bedfordshire Council permission to appeal against a judge’s decision to refuse permission for judicial review after a planning inspector found that the authority had failed to comply with duty to cooperate when preparing its local plan.
- The High Court last week heard a challenge brought by the French Government over the validity of certificates of lawfulness issued by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea for works to the basement of a property next door to the French embassy. The owners of the property (the former Soviet mission) are Jon Hunt, founder of the Foxtons estate agency, and his wife Lois. They intend to house their collection of vintage cars in the expanded basement.
- Three separate groups of campaigners are using the Crowd Justice website in a bid to fund legal battles over renewable energy projects. Two are in Devon (at Harberton and on the Frogmore Estuary) while the third is the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
- A High Court judge has dismissed a judicial review challenge over the introduction of a so-called ‘mini- Holland’ cycling scheme in north-east London drawn up by Waltham Forest Council with £27m of funding from Transport for London secured in 2014. The project is intended to make the borough more cycle friendly and encourage more people to take up cycling and walking.
Bath bridge
A French architect has won the competition to design a new bridge across the River Avon in Bath. Marc Mimram’s pedestrian and cycle bridge, called Between History and Modernity, will link the new Bath Quays development with the city centre.
Heseltine to chair new Tees Valley initiative
The Government has appointed Lord Michael Heseltine to chair a new inward investment programme initiative for the Tees Valley, following the closure of the SSIsteelworks in Redcar. This move will support existing local plans.
Circuit of Wales project common land deal approved
Welsh ministers have approved plans to deregister common land needed for the controversial Circuit of Wales project near Ebbw Vale.
A land swap is part of the deal which now means the £315m scheme should start to climb off the drawing board in earnest. However, questions still remain over the funding for the proposals.
Roger Milne
The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management is currently carrying out a research project on the influence of building control inspectors in the construction industry of England and Wales.
The school is looking for building control officers (both from local authorities and approved inspectors) that are willing to be interviewed about the profession. The study is especially interested in understanding the roles, experiences and strengths of individual inspectors.
All information collected will be treated in strictest confidence and any views or opinions will not be attributed to an individual or organisation. Moreover, participants may withdraw from the research if they choose to at any point and may decline to answer any questions without needing to give a reason.
Interviews will last about one hour and can be conducted via telephone or Skype for respondents located far from London. If interested, kindly contact
Loulwa Achkar (Research Assistant)
loulwa.achkar.14@ucl.ac.uk
07788250354
Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management
2nd Floor 1-19 Torrington Place
London WC1E 7HB
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
