From the Planning Portal www.planningportal.gov.uk

The Government has used the latest Budget statements to make a series of announcements about planning initiatives including proposals to give businesses an explicit role in neighbourhood-level planning, moves to accelerate the release of public sector land and the removal of the national brownfield target.

According to ‘The Plan for Growth’, a joint document prepared by the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, ministers want businesses to “bring forward neighbourhood plans and implement planning frameworks, or to set up neighbourhood development orders”.

This would reduce the need for “additional planning consents, for example on a single or shared use industrial site or town centre”, explained the document.

The Government has stressed that business would need to work with and gain the agreement of the local community “and pass independent examination before neighbourhood plans or orders are formalised”.

The document said the nationally-imposed target for development on brownfield sites “had helped drive up land prices in certain areas and would increasingly limit the supply of new housing, which would harm first time buyers in particular”.

Ministers have stressed that this policy change would not affect the Government commitment to maintain the Green Belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or other environmental designations.

On land auctions the Government is keen to see if it would be feasible for local authorities to auction sites with planning permission, owned either by the public sector or private landowners who want to participate.

Ministers explained that the Homes and Communities Agency will pilot elements of this starting later this year.

The Government has argued that land auctions would be a way of capturing a greater share of the land value uplift created by the granting of planning permission. The expectation is that this will work alongside the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

Ministers are also committed to introducing measures to streamline planning application and related consents, including a 12-month guarantee for the processing of all planning applications, including any appeals.

In addition the Government has indicated it will consult on proposals to make it easier to convert commercial premises to residential. This would mean that classes B1, B2 and B8 (business general, industrial and storage) could become class C3 (residential) without the need for change of use consent.

This is in line with recommendations from think tank The Policy Exchange which has just published a study – ‘More Homes: Fewer Empty Building’s – which makes the case for allowing vacant or under used retail, industrial and office space to be converted into housing.

Authors Alex Morton and Richard Ehrman argued that despite the current housing crisis, there were currently 266,000 vacant commercial units, many of which have outlived their usefulness.

Alex Morton said: “Relaxing the planning rules to make it easier to convert commercial property would encourage investment, increase regeneration and create large numbers of jobs.”

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has published the details of its new Affordable Homes Programme of investment, and invited Registered Providers to put forward proposals for £2.2bn of funding (out of the overall £4.5bn funding pot) for affordable housing during the 2011-15 Spending Review period.

The details are set out in a Framework document, co-produced with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which sets out a step-by-step guide for providers who wish to apply, working alongside their local authority partners.

It outlines the changes in affordable housing provision being introduced for 2011-15, and how this new approach will meet the Government’s ambition to deliver up to 150,000 new homes over the next four years.

The new arrangements include the concept of “affordable rent” which is set to become an element in the affordable planning regime. This will require changes to current guidance as set out in Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 3 – Affordable housing. This is now out for consultation until 11 April 2011.

The Framework makes clear that proposals must meet local priorities, with pro-active discussions between local authorities and providers key to success. The HCA – through its enabling role – will act as a bridge between local authorities and providers to help deliver homes in line with local needs.

Any provider, offering value-for-money, can submit proposals. Existing consortium arrangements are expected to be maintained or expanded and larger providers are particularly encouraged to work with smaller, rural, specialist (e.g. supported housing) or community-based organisations in order to reflect local need.

Significantly, the way in which funding will now be allocated has changed. Unlike the previous funding model, providers are now being invited to submit proposals for delivery of affordable housing to the HCA for the entire four year period which will be managed through a flexible approach.

Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA, said: “This new approach gives increased flexibilities for local authorities and providers to plan ahead and deliver much-needed affordable homes. At a time when funding is tight, this new way of operating will allow us to do more with less resources, but it will rely heavily on effective working partnerships, which is where the HCA will play a significant part.”

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said: “With some 4.5m people on social housing waiting lists, it’s clear that not only do we need more homes, but we also need a complete overhaul of the system, to one that offers much more flexibility than the current ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Additionally, the document outlines how the HCA will assess the bids, and how programme management will operate under the mode.

Last week the Mayor of London published the new Interim Edition of the Housing Design Guide. Since the London Plan and supplementary planning guidance notes are material to any planning application the standards now required will eventually impact on all residential developments. Detailed consideration of the Gross Internal Areas stated for differing types of accommodation which is in excesss of the usual starting must be had when investigating potential re-developments.

The full guide is available at http://www.lda.gov.uk/publications-and-media/publications/design-guide.aspx

This is a quote from Hansard 26 July 2010

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles): Today I am underlining our commitment to supporting the creation of new free schools through the planning system.

The new Government are committed to decentralising power, including over planning. Localism should involve both devolving power down to local councils, and going further by devolving power and opportunity down to community groups, neighbourhoods and individual citizens. Our free schools policy is an example of localism and the big society in action-by empowering individuals to come together to improve the educational choices for their children in their local community.

The Secretary of State for Education outlined his proposals for new free schools on 18 June. Teachers, parents and charities will have much greater freedom to set up schools which respond to local needs. We want to encourage competition and innovation, to address the imbalance of opportunity in education and enable schools to develop their own identity. Our approach will increase choice and drive up standards across the country and provide a real opportunity to transform the lives of disadvantaged children.

We know that many individuals and organisations are passionate about improving standards in education, and they will want to take advantage of the new freedoms. But we do not want to squander the opportunities that they represent, for lack of suitable school premises. Neither do we want to strangle proposals with red tape, by putting them through a lengthy and ponderous planning process. So we want to make it easier for promoters of schools to build new premises, or find and if necessary adapt buildings suitable for the needs of a school.

We are already giving a strong message to local planning authorities that they must be more responsive to the needs of their own area. We are empowering them to take more responsibility for planning decision-making, by removing centralised targets and streamlining national planning policy. We are also encouraging them to take a more proactive and positive, collaborative approach to development at the pre-application stage. The best authorities work with applicants to identify the key issues and how they might be resolved, before the planning application is submitted. In this way, they have the opportunity to work with development promoters, to bring about imaginative, but practical solutions, which will benefit their local community. This is what we would like to see happening with new free schools.

The Planning Officers Society have made formal representation to the government for changes to be included in the forthcoming governmental review of the planning system. They say “Unauthorised development: Review the current four‐year and ten‐year “immunity” rules, preventing enforcement action being taken against unlawful development. As recent well‐publicised cases have shown, these encourage rogue developers, place heavy enforcement burdens on local authorities and undermine public confidence in the effectiveness of the planning system.

Forest of Dean District Council has lost its enforcement action over a building made of straw bales originally constructed for research and educational purposes by local resident Jim Wallis, who subsequently moved in and lived in the property.

The straw bale house had become a planning cause célèbre, the subject of high court challenges and two appeals. As a result of the most recent one Wallis has been allowed to retain the building, threatened with demolition, and to live in it.

Peter Williams, group manager for planning and housing with the local planning authority, said “It’s very disappointing to lose this case. Planning permission was originally granted as an exception to policy for a specific educational purpose and because of its environmental aspects.

“Planning law states that immunity from enforcement action is gained either after 10 years for uses of land or breaches of condition, or four years for building works or changes of use to a single dwelling.

“The council’s argument in this case was that the relevant period was 10 years as there was a breach of a condition on the original planning permission. The inspector accepted the appellant’s argument that the relevant period in this case was four years. The complexity of the arguments is reflected in the fact that the case has been the subject of consideration by two inspectors and the High Court.”

The leader of Barnet Council, councillor Lynne Hillan, has welcomed the decision of Communities secretary Eric Pickles not to call in the £4.5bn redevelopment of Brent Cross shopping centre, approved by the council last year, backed by London mayor Boris Johnson but put on hold pending a Government decision on whether or not to hold a public inquiry.

Councillor Hillan said: “I am obviously delighted that Barnet’s biggest regeneration project has been given a green light by central Government. This is a £4.5bn investment in the borough that will create a new town centre, new homes, new jobs and new schools as well as enhancing one of the borough’s biggest employers.”

Education secretary Michael Gove has revealed that the Government is committed to making it easier to secure sites for new schools as part of the coalition’s free schools initiative.

This will include allowing a wider range of sites, including residential and commercial property, to be used as schools without the need for “change of use” consent.

There will also be an extension of powers to protect existing schools’ sites, to make sure they are kept available for use by new schools where there is demand, announced the education secretary.

Circular 05/2010 confirms changes to the Use Classes Order – Essentially the changes are:

Use class C2A is for secure residential institutions, which enables changes between similar types of premises (but with different uses) to be made without requiring planning permission for a change of use.

Class C3: Dwellinghouses, this class is now formed of 3 parts:
• C3(a): those living together as a single household as defined by the Housing Act 2004 (basically a ‘family’)
• C3(b): those living together as a single household and receiving care, and
• C3(c): those living together as a single household who do not fall within the C4 definition of a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

The new C4 class covers small shared dwelling houses occupied by between 3 and 6 unrelated individuals who share basic amenities.
Small bed-sits will be classified as C4.

For full details please contact us info@ppmservices.co.uk

Communities and Local Government secretary Eric Pickles has told councils and the Planning Inspectorate that the regional planning regime for England should no longer carry any weight in terms of planning decisions.

He has written to every local planning authority (LPA) and the Inspectorate highlighting the coalition Government’s plans to abolish regional spatial strategies and stressing that decisions on housing supply “will rest with LPAs without the framework of regional numbers and plans”.

The secretary of state said councils and the Inspectorate should “have regard to this letter as a material consideration in any decisions they are currently taking”.

In the letter Pickles stressed the administration’s commitment “to rapidly abolish regional strategies and return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils”.

“Consequently, decisions on housing supply (including the provision of traveller’s sites) will rest with local planning authorities without the framework of regional numbers and plans,” he said.

He promised a formal announcement “soon”. The letter has had an immediate effect with a number of LPAs announcing that work on core strategies was being reviewed or put on ice.

The secretary of state commented: “We’ve promised to use legislation to scrap top-down building targets that are eating up the green belt, but I’m not going to make communities wait any longer to start making decisions for themselves.

“I have written to all councils to let them know that they can make planning decisions in the knowledge that ‘regional strategies’ will soon be history. It will no longer be possible to concrete over large swathes of the country without any regard to what local people want.”

Housing developers have expressed concern over these latest developments. The Home Builders Federation, the sector’s trade body, has warned that existing housing shortages will get worse because of policy uncertainties.

HBF executive chairman Stewart Baseley said: “The Government says it is committed to delivering more homes, but without urgent guidance, this aspiration will not be achieved. Scrapping the existing system without a replacement is a recipe for disaster.

“We have an acute housing crisis in this country, approaching a shortfall of a million new homes. We just cannot afford a period of confusion to reduce house building still further at a time when we are already building at the lowest level for many decades.”