What's next for Planning?

The Prime Minister has promised radical reform of the planning system to assist in upgrading the UK's infrastructure and to help stimulate economic recovery post COVID-19. The £5billion economic growth strategy will be underpinned by the government's commitment to not only 'build, build, build', but to build back better, greener and faster than ever before. Further details will be revealed in the planning Policy paper which is due to be published later this month with proposed changes due to take effect in September.

With so many changes forthcoming in the planning system, we must not forget the more immediate changes which are due to take effect imminently.

The Business and Planning Bill 2020

This Bill has moved quickly through Parliament and is expected to become law imminently. The Act will:

a) grant an automatic extension for planning permissions that are due to expire or have expired since 23 March 2020. The extension will be applied until 1 April 2021.

b) introduce an additional environmental approval for the extension to 1 April 2021 to apply, for permissions lapsing between 23 March 2020 and the date 28 days after the provisions take effect.

c) introduce a fast track deemed consent regime for applications submitted to vary construction site working hours. If the local authority does not determine the application within 14 days the revised working hours will be deemed to have been consented to by the local authority. Detailed guidance has been published to vary construction site working hours which must be considered before any application is submitted.

d)The Planning Inspectorate will also be able to allow any and all appeal procedure types to speed up the appeal process.

The Community Infrastructure Levy (Coronavirus) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 

The government recently promised changes to the inflexible CIL Regulations and these are now being brought into effect. The new Regulations provide that a developer with an annual turnover of less than £45 million can request changes to their CIL payment on the basis of financial struggle as a result of COVID 19.

Upon an application by the developer, the collecting authority will have the discretion to:

a) Defer payments for up to 6 months or a year, if certain criteria are met;

b) Introduce or amend an instalment policy;

b) Disapply late payment interest and surcharge payments;

c) Credit interest accrued between the start of lockdown (21 March 2020) and the day before the deferral request was received, against the CIL amount due under the granted revised demand notice.

The authority cannot charge late payment interest while it is determining such requests. These measures will only apply to CIL payments that are payable on or after the date this instrument comes into force, to 31 July 2021. Given the impact of the lock down on many developments it would have been beneficial for the Regulations to apply retrospectively from the start of the lockdown.

Permitted Development Rights (PDR)

The government is continuing to use PDR as a way of trying to deliver its ambitious housing targets. On 1 August 2020, a new PDR will be introduced to allow the construction of up to two additional storeys above the existing topmost residential storey on a building that is already 3-storeys or higher. The PDR will be subject to a prior approval process and a number of conditions need to be satisfied before the PDR can be exercised. The additional storeys will need to be completed within three years of the prior approval.

Extension of PDR has also been promised to allow a wider range of commercial premises to be converted to residential use and to allow vacant commercial and residential buildings to be demolished and rebuilt so long as they are built as homes. Details are awaited.

With further reforms to the planning system promised by the government, it looks like the long- awaited overhaul of the planning system is finally coming!