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New Regulations set out additional Housing and Planning Act 2016 provisions to commence on 13 July, and others coming into force on 1 or 31 October 2016
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 (Commencement No.2 Transitional Provisions and Savings) Regulations 2016 provide details of many planning-related sections and subsections of the Act that are now to commence on 13 July 2016. They are in addition to those already commencing on the same day that were detailed in s216 of the Act itself (and that NLP covered in a previous blog). Other provisions of the Act are also confirmed in the Regulations as coming into force on either 1 or 31 October this year.
Here are the details of the provisions involved:
Section 12 is in force from 13 July and introduces further and consequential amendments to the Self-build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015 and its schedule on registers, to pave the way for the Housing and Planning Act’s related provisions to come into force.
The new Regulations also specify that sections 9, 10 and 11 (setting out the local authority duty to grant permissions to meet the demand for self-build and custom housebuilding – and the exemption from that duty) of the Act will come into force on 31 October; by that time, all of the self-building and custom housebuilding provisions will be in force.
Section 141 comes into force on 1 October, giving new powers to the Secretary of State (SoS) to intervene and take over the neighbourhood plan-making role of the local planning authority. Section 142 will come into force on the same day, from when a neighbourhood planning forum will be able to request to be notified of planning applications in its area.
Section 143 brings into force provisions to allow the SoS or the Mayor of London (if the LPA is a London Borough) to direct an authority to amend their local development scheme (setting out the content and timeframes for the preparation of development plan documents and supplementary planning documents), in relation to the subject matter of any document specified in a scheme.
Section 144 means that the SoS can direct, by notice, a development plan document’s Inspector to suspend his examination, to consider specified matters (included in the notice), to hear from specified parties, or to take other procedural steps in connection with the examination.
Coming into force on 1 October, subsections 145(1) to (4) further increase SoS intervention powers in local plan-making, this time relating to the Communities Secretary holding an examination. Likewise sections 146, 147 (with Schedule 11) and 148 extend the Communities Secretary’s and the Mayor of London’s default powers in local plan-making, as well as giving default powers to combined authorities.
Subsections 150(4) and 150(5) introduce a new subsection into the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (to section 333), to specify from 13 July that regulations made to amend the duration of permissions in principle (PIPs) granted either by development order (for 5 years) or local authority (for 3 years) have to be ‘laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament’. Schedule 12 of the Act also comes into force at the same time, to introduce minor and consequential amendments to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (and other Acts), effectively to add PIPs as another type of planning permission to which current rules apply.
Subsections 152(2) to (4) (‘Approval condition where development order grants permission for building’) come into force on 13 July and complete the necessary legislative amendments that facilitate the proposed office-to-residential ‘rebuild’ permitted development right in England. Subsection 152(1) of the Act, which inserts new subsection 1A into section 60 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, is already into force (from 12 May 2016), meaning that all s152 provisions are now commenced. Section 152(2) specifies that the current s60(2) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 is to apply to ‘any buildings in Wales’, differentiating this from the regime that applies to England only.
Section 154 also comes into force on 13 July, introducing the new ‘planning freedoms scheme’ where specific planning provisions will be dis-applied or modified (for a specified period), so as to support an increase in the amount of housing in the planning area concerned. Details of the working of this new scheme are yet to be specified, although mentioned in the Locally-Led Garden Villages, Towns and Cities prospectus (published in March 2016) - thus the ‘freedoms’ could potentially contribute to the delivery of new garden settlements.
Coming into force on 1 October, section 156 requires a report on a planning application or a PIP to set out how the neighbourhood plan for the area was taken into account in making the recommendation, and to identify any conflict between the plan and that recommendation.
The Act’s review requirement of planning legislation, government planning policy and local planning policies for sustainable drainage (s171) comes into force on 1 October; there is no timescale requirement for the review however.
The legislative framework for new towns and development corporations is amended on 13 July by the commencement of sections169 and 170, which specify that the SoS has to consult extensively before making an Order to designate an area of land in England as the site of a proposed new town, and that a development corporation must aim ‘to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development’ – and have regard to ‘the desirability of good design’.
New compulsory purchase provisions regarding the Right to Enter and survey land come into force on 13 July, as sections 172 to 179 commence (together with Schedule 14). The Regulations set out a series of saving and transitional provisions relating only to s179 and Schedule 14, for activities authorised before that date.
Section 182 brings into force a new time limit for giving notice to treat and for a general vesting declaration (3 years from the date the Compulsory Purchase Order becomes operative), while s190 abolishes the alternative possession procedure following notice to treat. Sections 201 (power to quash decision to confirm CPO), 202 (extension of compulsory purchase time limit during challenge), 203-206 (power to override easements and other rights), and Schedule 19 also come into force on 13 July.