The ‘Planning for the future’ white paper, and 12-week consultation, ‘Changes to the current planning system’, published this week, aim to streamline, speed up and simplify the planning process in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not affected as planning is devolved.
Tim Hellier, partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, said there were ‘some interesting ideas in the latest proposals not least the proposed introduction of a zoning system which was first trailed in the paper published by the Policy Exchange just before lockdown.
‘The experience of our zoning specialist colleagues in our New York office, where an “as of right” zoning system was introduced in 1961, is that the system does still have significant complexities (the zoning rules now run to 1,500 pages), so it might not be the magic bullet the government is hoping for. Indeed, the transitional arrangements are likely to be very complicated and will introduce huge levels of uncertainty which will delay and potentially undermine investment decisions.
‘A further consequence of pressing the “reset” button on the planning system is that it would place a huge additional burden on local authorities against the background that many planning departments are seriously under resourced. Ensuring that they are adequately resourced to implement any changes will be critical to the successful implementation of the reforms.’
Angus Walker, infrastructure partner, BDB Pitmans, said: ‘There is a lot to digest among the 24 proposals set out in the white paper.
‘They introduce zoning without calling it zoning for so-called “growth” areas that get automatic outline permission and which will legally be described as “suitable for substantial development”. The key will be the design codes that accompany them.
‘There will be a “fast track for beauty”, but without getting too philosophical―what is beauty? Neighbourhood plans stay but the duty to cooperate between neighbouring councils and the soundness test for local plans will go; local plans will have to take no more than 30 months to produce.
‘The controversial Community Infrastructure Levy gets combined with s 106 agreements as a broader nationally set “Infrastructure Levy”. That will increase certainty but will it cater for local circumstances? There is part of a question on bringing large settlements into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime, which is something I and others have been calling for.
‘Finally, one small part acknowledges that delays aren’t just down to planning, given the conclusions of the Letwin review of why permissions take so long to implement: large developments will have to contain a variety of development types from different builders.’
The Changes to the current planning system consultation closes at 11.45pm on 1 October, and can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/3fAGipc.
The ‘Planning for the future’ white paper can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/2PydOlm.
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