Planning matters

Planning reform has been a political football for a number of years before the general election, with Government consultations and announcements over the last five years covering everything from Digital Local Plans to the back-and-forth over housing targets.

For a significant period before then, the refinement of policy tests for town centres and retail was often a key part of the reform of policy. However, recent announcements and briefings have made very few references to policy for the high street with housing, infrastructure and associated economic growth the clear priority. This was most recently evidenced in the King’s Speech. Other proposed changes, such as the reform of business rates, not directly related to planning, are likely take some time to have any measurable impact on the ground.

A new consultation draft of the NPPF is expected imminently, and it will be interesting to see what, if any, changes are being proposed to town centre policies (notably ‘impact’ and ‘sequential’ tests), which have remained largely static since the NPPF was first introduced in 2012.

In the same time period we have seen a number of market disrupters across town centre uses including:

One of the few changes to the planning system affecting town centres in recent years has been the reform of the Use Class Order (UCO), which came into effect in September 2020. This introduced much needed flexibility into the system, alongside various permitted development rights, but has not had significant impact on the broader function of town centres.

In the context of the new Government’s pro-growth agenda and with a new NPPF on the horizon, we will have to wait and see if aspirations for a renaissance of town centres will reflect the ever evolving market to match the Government’s radical ambitions for infrastructure and housing with greater flexibility, or whether the drive for growth will loosen the shackles imposed through sequential and impact tests.

I am sure we will find out soon enough ….