Chancellor George Osborne has said the Government plans to set up an independent statutory National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) – an initiative originally proposed by the Labour Party and part of their 2015 manifesto.
The commission’s first chairman will be Lord Adonis, formerly a Labour transport minister. He will become a so-called crossbencher, an independent peer.
These developments were highlighted in Osborne’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. Osborne also revealed that the existing 89 local authority pension funds will be pooled into half a dozen British Wealth Funds, each with assets of over £25bn. These new funds will develop the expertise to invest in infrastructure.
The Chancellor also committed the Government to bring forward sales of land, buildings and other assets which will raise up to £5bn by 2020. The proceeds will be recycled to help fund new infrastructure projects.
In addition Osborne confirmed that the Government will legislate to provide automatic planning permission in principle on all brownfield sites identified on yet to be established “brownfield registers”.
The NIC, which will have between 25 and 30 permanent staff, will be created immediately on an interim basis, and will later be put into statute. It will deliver a long-term plan and assessment of national infrastructure needs early in each parliament, setting out what a government is expected to do over the next five years.
It will be overseen by a small board, appointed by the Chancellor. It will have statutory powers to allow it to draw on the expertise of the sectoral regulators, and key national delivery bodies such as Network Rail and Highways England.
The NIC will start work immediately on:
- A plan to transform the connectivity of the Northern cities, including high speed rail (HS3)
- Priorities for future large-scale investment in London’s public transport infrastructure
- How to ensure investment in energy infrastructure can meet future demand in the most efficient way.
The Commission will publish advice to the Government on these issues before next year’s Budget. It will also begin work on a national infrastructure assessment, looking ahead to requirements for the next 30 years.
Ministers have stressed that the Commission’s remit will be to consider future infrastructure of national significance. It will not re-examine existing government infrastructure commitments, and it will not re-open regulatory price controls. Neither will it look at Heathrow and airports in the South East or re-examine the work of the Airports Commission.
Infrastructure planning guru Angus Walker, a partner with law firm BDB, said: “this will be the biggest change to the Planning Act 2008 regime since it was first enacted nearly seven years ago. The ‘front end’ of setting out what infrastructure is needed and how it is to be funded will get a complete overhaul.
“Applications will not be entirely unscathed, because they will of course have to fit in with what the strategy says, rather than existing government policy and National Policy Statements.”
He added: “When the Planning Act 2008 was passed, the Government set out need in National Policy Statements and an independent body then decided applications.
“When this change is made it will be the other way round: an independent body will set out need in the equivalent of National Policy Statements and it is the Government that now decides applications.”
Independent Armitt Review of Infrastructure
Roger Milne
The Government has agreed a new devolution deal with civic leaders from South Yorkshire which will mean a new directly-elected mayor.
The move, involving the Sheffield City Region, was hailed by Chancellor Osborne as “the most fundamental shake-up of local government for a generation.”
Sheffield City Region is one of 38 towns, cities, counties and regions which submitted ambitious proposals to Westminster to take control of how public money is spent in their area.
As part of the deal, a Sheffield City Region Mayor will be elected for the first time in 2017 by voters across South Yorkshire.
The Mayor will oversee a range of powers devolved from government including responsibility over transport budgets; franchised bus services and strategic planning while the deal also includes additional devolved powers for the area’s Combined Authority.
This includes a new gain share deal within an envelope of £30m a year for 30 years, giving Sheffield the power to use new funding to boost local growth and invest in local manufacturing and innovation.
The deal for the Sheffield City Region requires support from each of the local councils within the Sheffield City Region and is subject to a programme of consultation and engagement with residents and businesses over the coming months.
In a separate but related initiative Osborne announced that councils are to retain all locally raised business rates by the end of the decade. Under radical local government finance reforms outlined by the chancellor, the Government is also calling time on the distribution of core grant from Whitehall to town halls.
Under these proposals, authorities will be able to keep all the business rates that they collect from local businesses, meaning that power over £26bn of revenue from business rates will effectively be devolved.
The uniform national business rate will be abolished, although only to allow all authorities the power to cut rates. Cities that choose to move to systems of combined authorities with directly elected city-wide mayors will be able to increase rates for specific infrastructure projects, up to a cap, likely to be set at 2p on the rate.
Roger Milne
Three more onshore wind turbine projects in the North of England have been blown off course by Communities Secretary Greg Clark on appeal. In each case the dismissal of the appeal was recommended by the planning inspector who held the recovered public inquiry.
All the proposals fell foul of the new transitional provision that schemes must be able to demonstrate community support.
Two of the cases involved single turbines, in Cumbria and Nothumberland respectively. The other was a two-turbine scheme proposed for a site on Grange Moor near Wakefield in west Yorkshire.
The latter project had been refused by Kirklees Council. In his decision letter dismissing the appeal the Secretary of State insisted that community concerns over the scheme had not been addressed, citing the harm to the character and appearance of the of the landscape and the recreational value of the local rights of way network.
In the case of the Northumberland turbine (proposed for a farm at Ancroft, Berwick-upon-Tweed) and blocked by the county council, the SoS refused the scheme after pointing to concern about the turbine’s impact on the setting of an scheduled ancient monument and its visual impact.
Finally, in respect of the sole turbine planned for a farm near Ulverston, Cumbria refused by South Lakeland District Council, the SoS said he was satisfied that local concerns over landscape impacts and the setting of heritage assets had not been fully addressed.
Recovered appeal: land at 25 Wakefield Road, Grange Moor, Wakefield
Recovered appeal: Shoreswood Farm, Ancroft Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland
Recovered appeal: Gleaston Park Farm, Gleaston, Ulverston, Cumbria
Roger Milne
New research undertaken on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has found that average cuts in planning staff of more than 30 per cent in local planning authorities over the past five years are now undermining economic recovery across the north-west region.
In many cases, local planning services are surviving on the “goodwill and professional integrity” of their officers, but this may not be sustainable in the longer term, argued the institute.
The region’s future ability to deliver homes, schools, hospitals and other major infrastructure is being put at risk, said the RTPI.
The research by Arup, the global engineering, design and planning company, found that although the time taken to determine applications is often still good, there are signs of increasing delays in receiving pre-application advice, s106 agreements and discharge of conditions.
Joanne Harding, chair of the North West region of the RTPI, said: “Planning authorities across the North West are doing everything they can to improve the quality of their service, despite very significant funding cuts.
“We need greater reinvestment in planning services from sources such as the New Homes Bonus and other related income. This would help put planning services on a more stable footing at a critical time for the North West.”
Roger Milne
Outline proposals for a £200m new community near Blackpool were approved this week by the council subject to a s106 agreement.
The Whyndyke Farm development involves some 1,400 new homes, a school and a health centre. The scheme, earmarked for a 91-hectare site near junction 4 of the M55, straddles the boundary between Blackpool Council and neighbouring Fylde District Council which gave the project the green light in June.
Work could begin next year on the site which is owned by a consortium including the Oyston family. The majority of the scheme is within Fylde Council’s planning jurisdiction. The impact will be felt largely on Blackpool’s urban area with demand for school places and health care expected to increase.
However, developers say the scheme, which also includes around 20 hectares of employment land, will bring a huge economic boost to the resort.
The s106 agreement involves affordable housing provision, extra secondary school capacity and providing a new bus service.
The master plan envisages some 350 two-bed, 700 three-bed, 280 four-bed and 70 five-bed properties on the northern part of the site along with a two-form primary school and two neighbourhood centres containing retail space, a health centre, a pub, residential units, a café, offices and a takeaway with vehicle access onto Preston New Road and Mythop Road.
Roger Milne
Green belt figures
New figures show that there has been a decrease of around 2,000 hectares overall of green belt in England between April 2013 and the end of March 2015 largely because of new local plans adopted by 11 local authorities.
These latest figures show that the extent of the designated green belt in England as at 31st March 2015 was estimated at 1,636,620 hectares, around 13 per cent of the land area of England.
Since these statistics were first compiled for 1997, there has been an increase of 32,000 hectares in the area of green belt after taking account of the re-designation of some green belt as part of the New Forest National Park in 2005.
Latest deprived neighbourhood analysis
The Department for Communities and Local Government has updated the English Indices of Deprivation 2010. This provides a measure of relative levels of deprivation in 32,844 so-called small areas or neighbourhoods in England. Most of the indicators used for these statistics are from 2012/13.
The majority (83 per cent) of neighbourhoods that are the most deprived according to the 2015 Index of Multiple Deprivation were also the most deprived according to the 2010 Index. Some 61 per cent of local authority districts contain at least one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England.
Middlesbrough, Knowsley, Kingston upon Hull, Liverpool and Manchester are the local authorities with the highest proportions of neighbourhoods among the most deprived in England.
The 20 most deprived local authorities are largely the same as found for the 2010 Index, but the London Boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Haringey have become relatively less deprived and no longer feature in this list.
However seven of the 10 local authority districts with the highest levels of income deprivation among older people are in London. Tower Hamlets is the most deprived district with regard to income deprivation among both children and older people.
PM pledges homes building crusade
The PM promised a “national crusade to get homes built” in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester on Wednesday (7 October). However he unveiled no new proposals, though he did confirm that the Party’s Starter Homes initiative would be centre-stage.
David Cameron said the Government would achieve more house-building via “banks lending, government releasing land and planning being reformed”.
He told delegates:” I can announce a dramatic shift in housing policy in our country. Those old rules which said to developers: you can build on this site, but only if you build affordable homes for rent. We’re replacing them with new rules. You can build here, and those affordable homes can be available to buy.”
He added: “Yes, from Generation Rent to Generation Buy”.
View more information on the Conservative Party Conference
National Trust urges tougher AONB regime
Ministers have been urged to update national planning guidance for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) with nine tests highlighted by the National Trust in a new report.
The report, prepared by consultancy Green Balance, also suggested that ministers should make clear how they intend to deliver their commitment to safeguard AONBs with a Ministerial Statement to Parliament.
The report found that local authorities with less than five years of housing land supply were the main cause of pressure to release land for development in sensitive locations in English AONBs or their settings.
Thumbs down for Woodstock development
Plans to build up to 1,200 houses on part of the Blenheim Palace Estate at Woodstock have been rejected by Cherwell District Council. The scheme had already been refused by neighbouring West Oxfordshire District Council.
A primary school, shops, transport interchange and football training facility were also included in the planning application.
Pye Homes’ proposals for 1,500 homes, on land owned by the estate, were reduced to 1,200 in June. Local residents opposed the proposals and the International Council on Monuments and Sites said the development would harm Blenheim Place and grounds, a Unesco World Heritage Site.
View the story on the BBC news site
One in five offices to homes conversions blocked
Nearly one in five of around 5,000 applications to convert offices into flats across England were blocked by councils over the period April 2014 to June 2015 according to research by property consultant Daniel Watney LLP.
This analysis showed that 916 out of 4,887 applications for office-to-residential conversion were refused on ‘prior approval’ grounds, which is still required where certain regulations or consents are needed.
In London, one in four (493 out of 1,959) was refused while the average for other cities was one in 10.
London round-up
- Revised outline plans have been approved by Harrow Council for the redevelopment of a former Kodak factory in north-west London to include 1,800 homes. The site is in a designated London Plan Opportunity Area. The council has also given the green light for a regeneration programme in the borough at Wealdstonel involving a new purpose built civic centre and around 1,000 new homes, including 400 affordable units.
- The Hounslow Local Plan has now been formally adopted by the borough council. The strategy reflects an indicative target in the London Plan of 822 dwellings per annum.
- A planning inspector has granted planning permission on appeal for the construction of a building with a two-storey basement in west London, despite an adopted planning policy by the planning authority (the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) restricting basement developments to one storey.
- The London Assembly is examining whether a new land value tax in the metropolis would cut the number of unused sites under private ownership while boosting public investment in infrastructure.
Solar powered Balcombe
Balcombe, the West Sussex village which has been at the epicentre of protests over fracking, has received planning permission from Mid Sussex District Council for a 5 megawatt community solar farm.
View the news story on Guardian.co.uk
Pig farm permit appeal
The company behind a proposed pig farm for 24,500 animals in Derbyshire is to appeal against a decision not to grant it an environmental permit.
The Environment Agency said the scheme at a site near Foston would result in significant “odour pollution”. About 34,000 people signed a petition against the plans, which were first lodged in 2011.
The company, Midland Pig Producers, has confirmed its appeal is being dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate.
Rayleigh housing scheme
Outline plans for a new neighbourhood of up to 500 new homes to the west of Rayleigh, Essex proposed by Countryside Properties have been given the go ahead by Rochford District Council
The 46 hectare site has been allocated for housing under the planning authority’s adopted core strategy. The scheme includes provision of 35 per cent affordable housing. The master plan for the development involves extensive areas of public open space. Part of the site is in green belt.
Herefordshire core strategy ’sound’
The planning inspector examining Herefordshire Council’s core strategy has found the strategy sound subject to modifications which the local authority has accepted. It plans to formally adopt the local development plan later this month. It has a minimum housing requirement of 16,500 dwellings (825 dwellings per annum) over the two decades up to 2031.
View more information on the Herefordshire Local Plan Core Strategy
Go-ahead for Smethwick hospital project
The long-awaited £350m Midland Metropolitan Hospital project has cleared its final hurdle after detailed permission for the project was approved by members of Sandwell Council’s planning committee.
The “super hospital” is expected to open in Grove Lane, Smethwick, in late 2018 and will serve more than half a million people living in Sandwell and West Birmingham. Construction is expected to begin in January.
The new hospital will have around 670 beds and 15 operating theatre suites and has been designed to meet the best international and national standards.
The current Sandwell and City Hospital sites will continue to be used for health activities, although parts of them will be developed for housing once the super hospital is complete.
Clark backs MK homes scheme
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has allowed an appeal for outline planning permission for a 53 home scheme on a brownfield site at Woburn Sands near Milton Keynes originally refused by the city council.
Clark agreed with the inspector who handled the recovered appeal that the scheme proposed by Frosts Family LLP was in a sustainable location and would mean the replacement of a semi industrial development in a rural area and a consequent reduction in heavy lorry movements.
The SoS, like the inspector, acknowledged that the scheme breached local plan policies but agreed the benefits of the project outweighed these objections, particularly as the council could not demonstrate a five year supply of housing land.
Kent theme park delayed
The developer behind ambitious proposals for a £2bn theme park in north Kent has said further research into the traffic and environmental issues must be undertaken before formally applying for a development consent order under the 2008 Planning Act.
The proposed 400 hectare London Paramount resort on the Swanscombe Peninsula, near Dartford, would be twice the size of the London Olympic Park, and include 5,000 hotel rooms and a water park.
The planned attraction is anticipated to have around 50 rides based on films and TV programmes. Provided it gets the go-ahead the scheme is not now expected to open by Easter 2020 as originally planned. The company has now said the start date will be 2021.
Legal round-up
- Squatters are claiming victory over Surrey County Council after it failed in a bid to move them on from a Grade II listed building in Staines. The squatters moved to the Oast House, a former adult education centre, after being evicted from their eco-village on land near Runnymede’s Magna Carta memorial. The council served notice to quit and sought a possession order which was rejected at Guildford County Court.
Cheetah enclosure clobbered
A couple who built an enclosure for cheetahs without planning permission in the Lake District National Park has lost their appeal to save it.
Dee and Daniel Ashman put the building up at Predator Experience at Ayside, Newby Bridge near Grange over Sands in South Lakeland. The Lake District National Park Authority originally refused the scheme retrospective planning permission last September and subsequently issued the couple with an enforcement notice for breach of planning control. The couple appealed the decision, however this has now been dismissed and the enforcement notice upheld because of the development’s “harmful effect on the character and appearance of the landscape of the area.”
Objectors said it was “becoming a zoo”, while the Planning Inspectorate said it was “alien and incongruous feature in the landscape”. The couple has been given six months to remove it and find a new home for the animals.
View more information on the appeal
Roger Milne
The Department of Communities and Local Government has decided that Durham County Council can resume work on its local plan after ministers agreed to quash a planning inspector’s interim verdict which was heavily critical of the plan’s housing and employment targets, strategy over the release of green belt land as well as proposals for new roads.
In May the council sought a judicial review of the inspector’s interim report. The DCLG subsequently requested that court proceedings were put on ice for 30 days.
During this “grace period” the DCLG came to an agreement with the council to quash the report, provided that the council withdrew the plan and amended it for examination under a new inspector. That agreement has now been approved by the High Court.
Council cabinet member for economic regeneration Neil Foster said: “This outcome is sensible, reasonable and fair for the plan and for County Durham. Most importantly it allows us to move forward with the essential ambitions for residents and businesses, which we maintain will offer a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to allow this county to deliver on its economic potential.
“We will be working to ensure that the refreshed plan can be resubmitted at the earliest opportunity with a view to a new examination being held in early 2016.”
A spokesman for DCLG said: “This Government is fully committed to supporting appropriate growth, so there is no doubt that the ambition of Durham County Council is the right one. However, local plans need to be deliverable and based on robust evidence.”
In a separate move DCLG ministers have endorsed a planning inspector’s conclusions that North Somerset District Council’s local plan should include a 20,985 housing requirement.
As one of his final acts as the then Secretary of State, Sir Eric Pickles intervened earlier this year and called in the plan stating he wanted to ensure national policy was being applied and reflected correctly.
Planning minister Brandon Lewis has just written to the council confirming the inspector’s figure as part of the plan.
“It is now for the council to take forward the other elements of its local plan and deliver the homes the community needs,” said a department spokesperson.
Meanwhile, in a further separate move a planning inspector has found Gosport Borough Council’s local plan ‘sound’ provided certain modifications are endorsed by the Hampshire District Council. The local authority plans to formally approve the strategy next month.
View more information on the County Durham Plan examination
Roger Milne
Developer Hallam Land Management has successfully appealed Fylde Borough Council’s failure to determine its application for the demolition of existing buildings and the provision of up to 360 homes on land at Blackfield End Farm, Church Road, Warton, in Lancashire on time.
The case was recovered for determination by the Communities Secretary. The Secretary of State agreed with the inspector who held the inquiry that the scheme should go ahead.
Part of the 13-hectare site for the scheme is in green belt, but the proposals allocated to this part of the project were as open space rather than built development.
The appeal site includes land on each side of Church Road which abuts the northern edge of the built-up area of Warton. The adjacent part of the settlement is predominantly residential. But the scheme will be close to extensive aircraft manufacturing works operated by BAE Systems.
These facilities are at Warton Aerodrome which is part of the Lancashire Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Enterprise Zone.
Clark’s decision letter said that “although the proposed development would represent an extension of the built up area [of Warton], it represents a sustainable form of development which will provide much-needed housing and which accords with the policies of the National Planning Policy framework taken as a whole”.
He agreed with the inspector that the scheme did not represent premature development in respect of both the emerging local plan and neighbourhood plan. Clark also acknowledged that the planning authority did not have a five-year supply of housing land.
The decision letter noted that the local authority and developer had agreed to revise the structure of the section 106 agreement in respect of education provision in response to new rules restricting the use of pooled infrastructure contributions.
Roger Milne
Communities Secretary Greg Clark and the Planning Inspectorate have confirmed that ambitious proposals for a so-called “International Advanced Manufacturing Plant“ near Sunderland in north east England can be handled under the Planning Act 2008 regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects.
The scheme is earmarked for 150 hectares of land to the north of the existing Nissan car plant to the west of the A19 and the south of the A184. Sunderland City Council and South Tyneside Council are working in partnership to deliver the scheme
The project is the first ‘business or commercial project’, where the uses include industrial, storage or distribution, office and research and development floor space, to be designated under the NSIP consenting regime since the range of qualifying schemes was expanded in 2013.
The only other business or commercial project to be permitted to use the regime to date is the proposed London Paramount entertainment resort in north Kent.
Global engineering, design and planning consultancy Arup is responsible for the preparation of an Area Action Plan for the site to set the planning policy framework and to secure consent for the development. Arup is also advising on master planning and environmental impact assessment. The Arup team includes Urbed, BNP Paribas, legal firm Pinsent Masons and communications specialist Local Dialogue.
Clark’s decision letter said the proposal “would be likely to have a significant economic impact, be important in driving growth in the economy and would have an impact on an area wider than a single local authority area… the substantial size of the proposal is relevant to my decision that this project is of national significance”.
The SoS added that the scheme “would benefit from the single authorisation process offered by the Planning Act 2008 regime.”
Roger Milne
A presumption against unconventional oil and gas extraction – a move which means an effective ban on fracking – and a retail development policy firmly rooted in the notion of “town centres first” are highlighted in Northern Ireland’s latest Strategic Planning Policy Statement (SPPS).
The document, the equivalent of England’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was formally published this week by Environment Minister Mark H Durkan.
The SPPS consolidates 20 separate planning policies running to 800 pages into one document. This provides the policy on key issues such as town centres and retail development, building in the countryside, creating and enhancing shared space, tourism, telecommunications and housing.
For the first time the policy rules out unconventional hydrocarbon extraction, often referred to as fracking. This would only change in the future if the Department of the Environment is satisfied that there is sufficient and robust evidence on all environmental impacts of fracking.
Durkan said: “I believe this is a sensible and reasonable approach.”
He added: “Publishing the SPPS unlocks development potential, supports job creation and will aid economic recovery but not at the expense of our planet, environment and people.”
The minister stressed that the new SPPS would enable councils to be flexible in bringing forward planning policy tailored to local circumstances through their new Local Development Plans.
In a separate move, Durkan last week announced that proposals for a controversial multi-million pound waste recycling and energy from waste facility on the edge of Belfast had been blocked against the recommendation of officials.
Arc 21, which represents a number of councils and the Becon Consortium, had proposed a £250m waste facility in the Hightown Quarry on the Boghill Road in Newtownabbey.
The plan faced huge public opposition with residents close to the site arguing the proposed location for the facility was inappropriate.
Refusal of planning permission leaves the councils with a problem of how to deal with their waste and how to meet EU targets on recycling.
View the Strategic Planning Policy Statement
Roger Milne
Planning Portal Blog 