Government Planning Reforms Continue

Measures to be taken forward in the Bill include:

Compulsory Purchase

The Government has confirmed the Bill will include measures to reform the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) process, aimed at speeding this up.

A process of directions is proposed to ‘remove hope value where this is considered justified in the public interest’.

The proposals will of course be of significant interest and concern to landowners and those involved with bringing forward land for development.

Iain Halls, Managing Partner at Ceres Property, said “The supply of land for development with willing landowners is a key part of the development process. We will be reviewing and advising landowners of implications accordingly”.

Committee & Delegated Decisions

The Bill seeks to take forward measures to increase delegated level decision making, and avoid applications needing to go before Councillors at Planning Committee meetings.

The changes, to be included in a new national scheme of delegation, will prevent committee-level decision making on smaller applications below a set threshold, to be set between 10 and 100 homes, or on Reserved Matters applications of any scale.

Also proposed are restrictions on the scale of committee and mandatory training for council members.

James Firth, Partner at Ceres Property said, “This is a significant change to planning application decision-making which should have a positive impact on timescales and certainty for our clients’ projects. Whilst positive, there remain cases where the consideration of the wider benefits of schemes is vital to the proper assessment of projects and it will be important these issues continue to be picked up in delegated decisions.”

Planning Fees

Provisions are made within the Bill for local authorities to set their own planning fees in order to seek to cover costs. These measures go beyond the planned increase in fees already to come into force on 1st April this year.

Increased Support For Energy Schemes & EV Charging

Grid connections for clean energy projects are to be given priority, replacing the current ‘first come, first served’ approach.  The change, aimed at providing greater certainty on connection, is also stated to help accelerate connections for industrial sites and data centres where energy connections are of course a central consideration. A relaxation to planning rules is also proposed to support the installation of EV charging.

Edward Rout, Partner at Ceres Property said “The potential for delays and uncertainty in grid connections has been a key issue for landowners and those promoting energy projects. The changes should provide new opportunities to consider energy and renewable projects for landowners”.

New Towns & Development Corporations

The Bill provides support for development corporations – they will have a role to support new towns where there are risks, or in supporting a significant scale of development. The delivery of new towns is of course a measure being increasingly looked at across local authority areas in order to meet revised higher housing requirements set through the Government’s standard method.

John McLarty, Managing Partner at Ceres Property said “The delivery of high growth levels may well require measures such as new towns across the country, as part of a package of measures to address housing needs. It is however important that any final proposals ensure these are taken forward in partnership with local authorities, landowners, developers and the wider industry; and that they are deliverable, supported by the requisite infrastructure, and with realistic assumptions around timescales”.

The proposed Bill will now follow Parliamentary process over the coming months on its course to becoming an Act.