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Winchester T: 01962 893 893 F: 01962 893 883
London T: 020 7812 6490 F: 020 7812 6677
info@remarkable-engagement.co.uk
Find out more about Localism visit localism-agenda.com
After months of delays, false starts and discussions, the Conservatives have today launched their much vaunted Planning Green Paper looking at proposals to reform the planning process should they come into power later in May.
The expected scrapping of Regional Spatial Strategies, the Regional Planning Bodies, and national and regional building targets features prominently within the document (as expected), alongside new initiatives for national infrastructure and an incentive based system to promote housing and employment development. For Regional Spatial Strategies, they will be dismantled in 2010 before primary legislation is passed to morph the planning system into this ‘Open Source Planning'.
Under the initiatives in the Planning Green Paper, Conservatives have pledged to:
> Scrap the powers of the Planning Inspectorate to rewrite communities' local plans - if the local plans apply national standards, are sensibly related to neighbouring communities, and have been developed by a fair and proper process, they will be approved;
> Reward councils to incentivise new homes and businesses; and
> Use collaborative democracy to allow local communities to create ‘bottom-up' local plans, helping local residents shape and protect the character of their neighbourhood.
On a national level, the document seeks to use local infrastructure blueprints to coordinate strategic matters crossing boundaries, with a new duty on public authorities - including the Highways Agency - to cooperate with local councils. The Infrastructure Planning Commission will be scrapped, with parliament taking a bigger role in such decisions and Infrastructure Plans mapping out future provision.
The much vaunted local level incentive scheme for encouraging communities to welcome more housing and employment by doubling council tax and business rate income for six years is still at the heart, joined by promises to spend S106 monies locally (with S106 themselves turning into a single unified local tariff for transparency).
There are tough words for those councils who dawdle on creating new Local Plans as the Conservatives plan to introduce presumption in favour of sustainable development should they not hit the deadlines, with planning applications accepted automatically if they conform with national planning guidance. In the transition period, current local planning documents will continue in force, but local authorities will be able to review them to undo unwanted planning policies which their Regional Spatial Strategy had imposed upon them, such as building on the Green Belt or loss of woodland. More detail will follow in further papers.
This bias towards sustainable development is noted in the paper as an inbuilt bias towards the creation of appropriate new houses, offices, schools, shops and other development. The emphasis on local control will allow local planning authorities to determine exactly how much development they want, of what kind and where. But unless they use their local plans explicitly to rule out particular types of development in specific areas, the planning system will automatically allow applications to be approved.
For housing targets, the Conservatives would roll back the numbers to those originally suggested by the local authorities, with these numbers being inserted into current LDFs until the new local plans have been created.
Interestingly, the paper looks to scrap recommended parking ratios for homes and near local shops and reverse the classification of back gardens as brownfield development. It also proposes to limit appeals against local planning decisions, allowing appeals only where they involve abuse of process or failure to apply the Local Plan. These will have a big impact on developers' rights once a local authority has reached a decision.
The policy paper hopes to ensure that significant local projects have to be designed through a collaborative process that has involved the local community. There is also to be a ‘fast track' for applications to which a significant majority of the immediate residential neighbours raise no objection. The local parish council will be classified as an immediate neighbour.
The Conservatives will also legislate to require that on projects above certain thresholds, before they can submit a planning application, developers involve the local community in collaborative design, as determined by the local planning authority. The depth of collaboration will be a material planning consideration in determining an application. The role of consultation looks set to be strengthened further under the Conservatives.
The tricky issue of ‘predetermination' is also covered, looking to scrap the rule which stops councillors from speaking about an application and then voting on it at committee. This will allow local councillors to get involved in applications without fear of stopping their right to vote.
Overall, this is a bold paper however not without significant risks - there will be some substantial debate over the next few months between the development industry and party officials. Remarkable will be playing its role and to join in the debate, drop a reply to us with your views or give us a call on 0800 298 7040.
For reference, the paper is available here:
http://www.conservatives.com/~/media/Files/Green%20Papers/planning-green-paper.ashx?dl=true (PDF File)
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