England planning news, April 2019

The Chancellor introduced his Spring Statement by referring to a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) he had just published, which itself refers to a further WMS by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (SoS); the two WMSs provide in relation to planning and housing:

1. The Government’s response to the Sir Oliver Letwin’s ‘Independent review of build out’, which includes committing to publish ‘shortly’ ‘additional planning guidance on housing diversification – to further encourage large sites to support a diverse range of housing needs, and help them build out more quickly’
   
   
2. The Government’s response to the October 2018 consultation ‘Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes’, notably the proposed amendments to use class A1 to ‘capture current and future models’, and introducing a PDR for change of use from classes A1, A2, A5 or certain sui generis uses to office. It is anticipated that many of these new PDRs will be brought forward ‘in the Spring’. More ‘complex’ proposed PDRs, included those for upward extensions to certain residential and commercial buildings, will be subject to further consultation. MHCLG is also continuing to explore whether a permitted development right to demolish a commercial building and replace it with a residential building can be devised.
   
   
3. An announcement regarding a ‘Better Planning for High Streets' consultation to be published shortly, which 'will set out tools to support local planning authorities in reshaping their high streets to create prosperous communities, particularly through the use of compulsory purchase, local development orders and other innovative tools'.
   
   
4. An announcement regarding the publication of an ‘Accelerated planning Green Paper' later in 2019 looking at capacity, performance management and procedures within the planning system and drawing on the Rosewell Review of planning inquiries. This month MHCLG asked all local authorities to take part in a survey ‘to understand long term resourcing pressures and skills gaps for local authorities'; this might also inform the Green Paper.
   
   
5. The launch of an Infrastructure Review looking at how to lever in private investment for funding new infrastructure projects.
   
   
6. An update on the Oxford-Cambridge Arc project.

These responses and announcements were reviewed by Lichfields in our Economic Outlook ‘Remarkably Robust’ (please see the link below). Since then, a written answer has confirmed that the WMS does constitute the Government’s response to the Letwin Review. And the March 2019 planning update newsletter from the Chief Planner to local planning authorities (LPAs) advises that Government ‘will keep under review the need for further interventions to support housing diversification and faster build out, including amendments to primary legislation'.

The SoS wrote to the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Clive Betts MP, on the day the WMS was published and the Chair has written a letter in reply. In that letter the Chair seeks confirmation as to whether a formal response to the consultation ‘Planning reform: supporting the high street and increasing the delivery of new homes’ will be issued and reiterates that proposed permitted development rights for town centre uses referred to in the WMS are not supported by the Committee.

The Committee is supportive of the Government’s intention to ‘focus on evolving the existing system of developer contributions to make them more transparent, efficient and accountable and my department is gathering evidence to explore the case for further reform’.

The Committee has been amongst those expressing concerns about the quality of the development that results from office to residential PDRs, and so it welcomes the SoS’s intention as stated in the WMS ‘to review PDRs for conversion of buildings to residential use in respect of the quality standard of homes delivered’.

This intention follows the Housing Minister responding to a member of the Committee during a parliamentary debate a few days earlier:

‘There is obviously a concerted attack taking place against permitted development rights, which I find distressing, given the sheer number of homes that they have produced for people who are desperate for those homes. As I have said, all homes, whether under permitted development rights or normal planning permission, have to comply with building regulations, and it is down to local authorities to ensure that that is the case'.

And in response to the shadow housing and planning minister:

‘[...] we are currently reviewing building regulations to see what can be required. As part of the work on the social housing Green Paper, we may well also look at the decent home standards that could, in time, apply to the private rented sector'.

The WMS says the Government will also develop ‘a ‘Future Homes Standard' for all new homes mandating the end of fossil-fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025'. A consultation this year is proposed, with a view to introducing the standard by 2025. A subsequent written answer advises that:
‘The Future Homes Standard will be implemented through an uplift to the Building Regulations, subject to consultation. We will expand on the technical detail of these proposals during the 2019 consultation'.

The planning related funding announcements made in this year’s Spring Statement speech were very limited, and included a new £3 billion Affordable Homes Guarantee scheme, to support delivery of around 30,000 affordable homes.

In response to a written question, the Communities Secretary has stated that the Government intends to lay before Parliament the secondary legislation that will ‘enable the delivery of starter homes’ later in the spring.

This is not expected to bring into force the duty on LPAs to require a certain number of starter homes in certain types of development (which would be provided by the not-yet-in-force section 5 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016).

Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) has been updated to reflect the NPPF, and to cross refer to new guidance on plan-making (which has been combined with the guidance on local plans), viability and planning obligations. However, many of the numerous changes are formatting changes or points of clarification. Of note:

1. The PPG confirms that supplementary planning documents cannot introduce new planning policies into the development plan but they are a material consideration in decision-making.
   
   
2. Clarifications on the Inspector’s role and procedures at a local plan examination are provided.
   
   
3. The planning obligations guidance has been completely reformatted and updated. New guidance includes advice on the evidence needed to support policies for contributions and the situations where planning obligations can be negotiated, reflecting new approach to viability.
   
   
4. The preparation of an infrastructure funding statement is recommended (it will be a requirement if the draft CIL Regulation are made and come into force) and there is guidance on what it should include.
   
   
5. A revised summary of what might be taken into account when determining whether or not a use has been abandoned (for the purposes of calculating vacant building credit).
   
   
6.  A new paragraph providing guidance on whether a local planning authority can set higher energy performance standards than the building regulations in their local plan, with reference to the 2015 WMS regarding this matter.
   
   
7. Guidance that ‘there should be no actual or perceived ‘double dipping’, with developers paying twice for the same item of infrastructure' has been removed.

Guidance on climate change, flooding and coastal change across a number of chapters have also been updated, and references to Wales have been removed from many amended paragraphs of the PPG, but not all.

In October 2018, the Court of Appeal held that the Government’s promise within a December 2001 Green Paper to ‘give reasons for our decision not to call in planning applications' was ‘an unequivocal promise [...] and that unequivocal promise should have been publicly withdrawn' (see Lichfields England Planning News, November 2018).

The Government has now publicly withdrawn that promise, via a WMS:

‘I am announcing today that the policy set out in the statement of 12 December 2001 is hereby withdrawn and that, from today, I will not give reasons for calling in or declining to call in planning applications. The call-in policy set out in the statement of 26 October 2012 remains in place'

It follows that other WMSs or policy statements not publicly withdrawn remain applicable where relevant.

MHCLG has put out a tender for a contract with a consultant to support it in producing a new visual design manual. Details on the Government’s contract website confirm that the design manual will accompany a revised version of the design Planning Practice Guidance (PPG).

As the Statement of Requirements sets out, the updated guidance will support the Government in achieving the aims of delivering higher standards in the built environment, in order to achieve community support for new homes in their area, and reflecting the emphasis added to good design in the revised NPPF.

The design manual will set out the objectives and process of good design, what is a well-designed place, design principles, and guidance for different project types, and will be accompanied with images and illustrations to support text.