English Planning Reforms – Build, Build, Build

The Prime Minister has indicated a radical overhaul of the planning system, with the objective of ensuring speed, national infrastructure delivery, and further deregulation to stimulate economic growth.

The announcement is still thin on detail, but did include clues as to the more immediate reforms due in September, and also the prospect of a new Planning Act, which might well see the system altered at a first principles level. The Government envisages the most radical alteration since 1947, which might involve fundamental change to the whole approach to producing plans and making planning decisions.

The Government’s promised changes due in September include:

• Extension to permitted development rights through reforms to the Use Classes Order “commercial, business and service”. This will mean that a wider range of commercial buildings will be allowed to change to residential use without the need for a planning application. Pubs, libraries, village shops and other types of uses “essential to the lifeblood of communities” will not be covered by these flexibilities. Savills has been suggesting greater flexibility to assist with the repurposing of retail and town centres 
• Flexible measures to enable vacant or redundant residential and commercial buildings to be rebuilt as homes within the same footprint. Though no detail is available as to what this means for the permitted development regime, and how ‘vacant’ buildings are to be defined. The Government has said that “normal planning applications” will not be required. National Parks, Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings will be excluded.
• Property owners will be able to build additional space above their properties via a fast track approval process, subject to neighbour consultation. This includes upward extensions. This reflect the updated regulations, recently published, to be effective from 1^st August with respect permitted development rights for dwellings/ apartment blocks.

Charlie Collins, Savills planning director, comments “these short term reforms are easily achieved within the present planning system, and should reduce the requirement for planning permission in a number of cases, targeted on increasing residential densities in our towns and cities and repurposing our town centres”.

In addition, the Prime Minster touched on comprehensive reform "setting out our plan for comprehensive reform of England's seven-decade old planning system, to introduce a new approach that works better for our modern economy and society".

A Planning Policy Paper will be published in July, which will outline the proposed reforms, which are anticipated to mark a move away from the present discretionary land based system, toward a land zoning system.  This may well take up some of the recommendations of recent reports published by The Policy Exchange  and Centre for Cities which both advocated greater flexibility in planning, reduced process, and political involvement.

Savills recently debated the planning system and proposed reforms in our Annual Planning Seminar, which discussed research assessing the value of town planning, notably with respect of the positive impact good and positive planning could have on strategic matters such as achieving a more sustainable relationship between new homes and jobs and a more flexible approach to Green Belt to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Savills research identifies key issues in the current system, including the time it takes for local authorities to produce a local plan (only 67% with an ‘up to date’ plan and 40% of those now have plans which are more than five years old) and in respect of ‘joining up’ complex issues such as the coordination of new infrastructure provision, with homes and new jobs. The age-old matter of protecting, and reviewing the Green Belt to achieve the most sustainable outcomes is also something which has proven challenging. 

David Jackson, Savills head of planning, comments “planning reform is not new, but what we have learnt in the past is that major reform takes time to bed-in and a move to zonal will require a complex transition period. The Government could, in conjunction with ongoing reform, make selective interventions, including a refresh of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to underpin a green economic recovery, commitment to an effective strategic-level of planning and further measures to increase levels of Local Plan adoption, including local authorities producing joint local plans for city regions”.

The value and quality of a properly resourced planning system should also be recognised.  The present planning system, despite its faults, has still enabled a record number of planning permissions for new homes; above the level of need in England of 300,000 dwellings per year. 

Charlie Collins also comments “a move to a zonal based system will front-load resourcing to plan making, which will need investment in good local plans, quickly, for all local authorities. In order to avoid the risk of poor quality design, investment will be needed to deliver well produced design codes and local guidance along with other reforms.”  Savills commented on the Building Beautiful Report in February (link), the Government will need to grapple with a relaxation of planning control that still ensures high quality design and places.

Savills will continue to monitor the actions and outputs of the UK planning system to assess the effectiveness of present and emerging proposals for change.