Commercial planning news, September 2018

In its new report, ‘Civil Society Strategy: building a future that works for everyone’ that was published on 9 August, HM Government defines the term ‘civil society’ as referring to ‘all individuals and organisations, when undertaking activities with the primary purpose of delivering social value, independent of state control’.

While the Localism Act 2011 has already ‘created new rights for communities, giving them an opportunity to take into local ownership community assets, shape planning and development in their area’, the Strategy states that with the intention of improving the use of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, the Government will explore whether 'social value' principles should be applied to specified areas of public decision-making that include planning.

The Strategy also states that the Government aims to strengthen the right for communities to bid for the ownership of local assets and will be issuing revised guidance on the issue.

Elsewhere, the document confirms that resident involvement has been lacking in many regeneration projects to date and promises to give communities a greater say in the future.

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark said:

‘Growing the economy and strong communities are mutually reinforcing and I very much welcome the steps which this new Civil Society Strategy takes to build on the lndustrial Strategy approach, particularly to involve communities more strongly in local planning for economic growth, prosperity and employment.’

On 23 August, MHCLG published a review that examines:

• how national planning policies for sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are reflected in local plans; and
• the uptake of SuDS across a range of commercial and housing developments in England.

The review was undertaken during 2016 and 2017, with the support of Defra and the Environment Agency.

According to the review, 80% of adopted local plans contain policies that reflect requirements in the 2012 NPPF for SuDS to be prioritised in areas with a high risk of flooding.

Although 87% of the sample of approved planning applications explicitly stated that SuDS would be part of the proposed development, for 70% of applications it was not clear who would be responsible for their maintenance.

The review states that this autumn, the Government will update the PPG on SuDS to reflect the changes made to the 2012 NPPF in the 2018 version of the Framework.

The National Heritage list for England reached 400,000 listings on 22 August, with the Grade II listing of four new buildings (the Howitt Building, Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham; the Elmdon terminal building, Birmingham Airport; Theatre Royal, Royal Parade, Plymouth; and the Birches ‘Squatter’s cottage’, Cleeton St Mary, Shropshire).