Keeping track of planning reform

Posted on 05/12/2012 by John Watson

It seems hardly a week goes by without the Government announcing another initiative ‘to get the planners off our backs’.  In case you’re losing track, here’s the state of play on the main proposals as at 30 November 2012.  We’ve grouped them under three headings: the Growth and Infrastructure Bill; Permitted Development Rights; and Other Changes:

Growth and Infrastructure Bill

The Growth and Infrastructure Bill was presented to Parliament on 18 October 2012.  It has just completed the line by line scrutiny of Committee stage (when many amendments were tabled) and will now go on to Report Stage.  The Bill as presented takes forward several of the Coalition Government’s planning commitments:

Local planning authorities in special measures                                                                                  

Clause 1 allows that where a local planning authority has been ‘designated’, an applicant for a major development will have the choice of making the application direct to the Secretary of State/Inspectorate.  DCLG is consulting (1) on its proposals for designating a LPA which has ‘consistently poor performance in the speed or quality of its decisions’: where 30% or fewer applications for major development are determined within 13 weeks (16 weeks for EIA applications) or where more than 20% of major decisions are overturned at appeal – in both cases averaged over a two year period.  Planning applications which are subject to  Planning Performance Agreements would not be included in the statistics.

Appeal costs

Clauses 2 and 3 broaden the powers of the Secretary of State and Inspectors to award costs between parties and to recover his own costs at planning appeals and certain other planning proceedings, along with broader powers to award costs at compulsory purchase order inquiries.  The Clauses would enable the SofS/Inspector to award costs even where none of the parties has applied for such an award.

Reducing information accompanying planning application

Clause 4 introduces a limit on the Local Planning Authority’s power to require information with planning applications which should be proportionate and material to the application in question.

Renegotiating affordable housing requirements

Clause 5 provides for an application to be made to vary affordable housing requirements contained in a planning obligation in order to make a development economically viable.  Where the planning obligation makes a development economically unviable, the local planning authority must modify replace or remove the obligation.  It also allows an appeal to the SofS where the planning obligation is not modified as requested.  The clause will come into force on the day the Act is passed.

Stopping up and diversion of highways

Clause 9 will enable a draft order for stopping up or diversion of highways to be published at planning application stage rather than the current position where applicants usually have to wait until planning permission has been granted.
Village greens

Amongst other things, Clause 13 prevents town and village green registration from occurring when a number of “trigger” events happen, such as an application for planning permission or where the land is identified for potential development.

Nationally significant commercial development

Clause 21 enables the SofS to direct that certain commercial and business development (but not housing) is of national significance and as such will require development consent as a nationally significant infrastructure project and will thus be determined by the SofS.  The direction would only be made at the request of the applicant or prospective applicant.  The DCLG has published for consultation guidance (2) on the types and forms of projects to be prescribed in the regulations.  The types and sizes of projects suggested include: over 40,000 sqm for offices, research and development, manufacturing, warehousing, conference and exhibition centres developments; over 100 ha in area for tourism, leisure and sports and recreation developments; 40,000 seat sports stadia;  and over 100,000 sqm major mixed use developments (excluding housing).

Permitted Development rights

In July 2012, the Government published for consultation proposals to extend permitted development rights for the reuse of existing buildings (3) .  On 12th November 2012 the Government published for consultation further proposals for extending permitted development rights for a temporary 3 year period to make it easier for businesses and homeowners to extend their properties (4) .   The key proposals from both documents are summarised below:

Home extensions

For a period of three years in non-protected areas, permitted thresholds for single storey rear extensions would increase from 3m to 6m for semi-detached dwellings and 4m to 8m for detached, subject to various limitations including no more than 4m high and development to cover not more than 50% of the curtilage of the house. 

Commercial extensions

For a period of three years in non-protected areas, increased permitted size limits for extensions to shops, professional/financial services and offices to 100 sq m.  Increased permitted size limit for industrial premises to 200 sq m.

Agricultural buildings to other uses supporting rural growth

Proposals to permit changes from agriculture to other low impact business uses such as workshops, offices, storage, food processing, café, leisure.

Higher thresholds for changes between B1, B2 and B8

Proposed doubling of the current floorspace limit from 235 sq m to 470 sq m for permitted changes of use between B1 and B8 and from B2 to B1/B8.

Temporary 2 year low impact uses

Proposed permitted temporary (2 years) change of use of ‘redundant buildings’ currently falling into use classes A, B1, D1 and D2.  Appropriate temporary uses likely to be within use classes A1, A2, A3 and B1.

Hotels (C1) to dwelling houses (C3)

No details on possible size bands, but the consultation paper states these are more likely to apply to smaller hotel premises.

Other changes

The Planning Guarantee

The Government’s Plan for Growth (March 2011) included a proposed guarantee that no planning application should take more than a year to decide. This would allow a maximum of 26 weeks for the local planning authority to reach its decision and, should there be an appeal, a similar maximum period of 26 weeks for the Inspectorate.  DCLG is consulting (5)  on a proposed amendment to secondary legislation whereby the applicant’s planning application fee would be refunded if the planning application remains undecided after 26 weeks.

Appeals                                                                                                                                                                                         

DCLG published for consultation on 1 November 2012 its proposals (6)  to streamline the appeals system and ‘change behaviours’ through changes to secondary legislation.  Some of the key proposals are: submission of appeal statement and draft statement of common ground when the appeal is made rather than after 6 weeks; subsequent agreement of Statement of Common Ground after 5 weeks; inquiries to be held within 16 weeks rather than 20 weeks; hearings to be held within 10 weeks rather than 12 weeks; fast-track Commercial Appeals Service for advertisement consent, changes to shop fronts, change of use and minor development <1,000 sq m – for these applications there would be a 12 week period rather than 6 months in which to appeal.

Green Belt

While the Government has not announced any proposals to change the law in relation to protection of the Green Belt, in a Ministerial Statement on 6 September 2012 the Minister for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles announced that the Government will encourage local planning authorities to review and tailor the extent of Green Belt land in their local areas. The Statement emphasises the Government’s commitment to safeguarding the Green Belt but at the same time refers to ‘considerable previously developed land in many Green Belt areas which could be put to more productive use’.  As an incentive, LPAs who review green belt land in their local plans will have their local plan examination process prioritised.

Commercial to residential

The National Planning Policy Framework (March 2012) includes at para 51 the Government’s advice that councils should normally approve change of use from commercial B uses to residential provided there are not strong economic reasons why this would be inappropriate.  Many thought this was the end of the matter, but in his 6 Sep Ministerial statement Eric Pickles announced that the government will ‘…introduce permitted development rights to enable change of use from commercial to residential purposes, while providing the opportunity for authorities to seek a local exemption where they believe there will be an adverse economic impact.’  The Government has yet to publish its proposals.

Flats above shops

On 1 October 2012 an amendment to the General Permitted Development Order (7) came into force which now enables buildings used as shops or financial and professional services to change to a mixed use incorporating up to two flats (and to revert back to non-residential use) without the need to apply for planning permission.  The previous GPDO allowed change of use to only one flat.

1 DCLG, Planning performance and the planning Guarantee (Nov 2012) – Consultation 22 Nov 2012 to 17 Jan 2013
2 DCLG, Nationally significant infrastructure planning: extending the regime to business and commercial projects (Nov 2012) – consultation 26 Nov 2012 to 7 Jan 2013                                                                                                                     
3 DCLG, New opportunities for sustainable development and growth through the reuse of existing buildings (Jul 2012)
4 DCLG, Extending permitted development rights for homeowners and businesses (Nov 2012) – Consultation 12 November to 24 December 2012
5 DCLG, Planning performance and the planning Guarantee (Nov 2012) – Consultation 22 Nov 2012 to 17 Jan 2013 
6 DCLG, Technical review of planning appeal procedures (Nov 2012) – consultation 1 Nov to 13 Dec 2012
7 Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (N0. 2) (England) Order 2012
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Government revise regulations to help extend existing permissions

Posted on 25/09/2012 by Chris Maltby

On the 6 September 2012 the Secretary of state announced a further one year extension to the temporary provisions introduced in 2009, which allows applicants to extend the time limits for implementing a planning permission.

This temporary provision allowed applicants with unimplemented extant permissions to apply to the Local Planning Authority for a new permission to replace an existing permission due to expire, therefore extending the period within which to begin the development. The temporary provision also involved a simplified procedure with a lower application fee, less onerous information and consultation requirements and no requirement for a design and access statement.

The Statutory Instruments required to allow this one year extension were laid before Parliament on the 6 September 2012 and will come into force on the 1 October 2012. The effect of the Statutory Instruments is to allow applicants with unimplemented permissions granted before the 1 October 2010 to apply for a new permission utilising the simplified procedure.

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Community Infrastructure Levy in Action

Posted on 25/09/2012 by Hilary Goodban

There are now seven authorities charging a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). A further forty-eight authorities across England have published their draft charging schedules. The London Borough of Wandsworth will be the next authority to start charging CIL, where the levy will come into force on 1 November 2012.

As the levy is increasingly being applied to developments, debates are emerging about the wording of certain parts of the regulations.

Among these debates, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published a report in June to identify some of the issues arising from the transition to CIL (working in tandem with a new scaled back Section 106 system). The report concludes that there still appears to be considerable uncertainty about many aspects of the CIL, including how to collect the CIL funds.

As a result of these debates the Government has found itself under growing pressure from lobby groups and councils to make further amendments to the regulations. In response the Government announced in July that it intends to make technical amendments to the regulations to clarify and improve the operation of CIL, and the Department for Communities and Local Government is advising that these amended regulations should be introduced in October.

It is understood that these amendments will include changes to the regulations in relation to Section 73 applications (see paragraph below), as well as minor changes to the formulas for calculating CIL. Amendments will also allow the Mayor to set an ‘instalment policy’ for the payment of CIL.

Section 73 ‘Double Liability’

In the amended regulations it is understood that the Government intends to close a loophole in the current regulations so that developers are not faced with ‘extra’ charges if they wish to make minor material amendments to an existing planning permission. In our previous newsletter we referred to this as ‘double liability’. In the current regulations, if developers make a minor amendment to an existing planning permission through a ‘Section 73’ application, the whole development will be chargeable under the CIL (if CIL is in force within that authority), even if the original planning permission was granted prior to CIL being in operation. Lobby groups have warned that this could make whole schemes unviable or prompt renegotiation of complex section 106 planning gain deals.

Regulation 40 – Existing Floorspace

A further area of debate is regulation 40. This states that if there is an existing building on the development site which has been continuously occupied for at least six months in the twelve months preceeding, the grant of consent (or final approval of reserved matters), then the gross internal area of that existing building (whether it is to be demolished or retained) will be deducted from the area of ‘chargeable’ development. As a result, in the case of empty buildings CIL would be payable for the whole building even if the proposed development only involves modest extensions to the building, potentially making it very costly to bring disused buildings back into use. Some developers may also consider the limited time period for occupation to be overly restrictive, particularly for example in the context of large development sites where the existing occupants/users vacate the site during the planning process. In this sort of case, where the planning process extends beyond the anticipated period, this could result in a hefty uplift in the CIL payments required. It is not clear if the proposed amendments to the regulations due in October 2012 will address these concerns – if not no doubt debates on this (and other details in the wording of the regulations) may continue as CIL ‘beds in’.

Get Involved in the Process

As we noted in our previous newsletter, following preparation and viability testing, each local authority has to follow a two-stage public consultation process when proposing its CIL rates: public consultation on the preliminary draft charging schedule, public consultation on a draft charging schedule. These stages are the right time for developers and other interested parties to submit representations or request to appear at the Examination to seek to ensure the CIL charges are appropriate to the particular needs and ‘market climate’ of the area.

After this the charging schedule is examined, the Examiner’s report is published, and then the schedule must receive approval by a resolution of the full council of the charging authority before it is formally adopted and CIL starts to be charged.

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Further Planning Reform

Posted on 25/09/2012 by Chris Maltby

The Government has recently released details of a package of measures intended to revive the economy by boosting house building and creating new jobs. The package includes measures intended to further streamline the planning system reducing bureaucracy and red tape and creating conditions that support local economic growth and the creation of new jobs.

A summary of the key messages taken from the statement made by The Rt. Hon. Eric Pickles include:

- Proposals to legislate to allow applications to be determined by the Planning Inspectorate if the local authority has a track record of consistently poor performance in the speed or quality of its decisions

- Proposal to give Planning Inspectors more power to initiate an award of costs in planning appeal proceedings, where it is clear that an application has not been handled as it should have been with due process

- There will be consultation on options to speed up planning appeals and for a new fast track procedure for small commercial schemes

- The introduction of legislation in early 2013 which will allow any developer of sites which are deemed unviable due to the number of affordable homes to appeal with immediate effect. The Planning Inspectorate will then make a decision on how many affordable homes could be provided by the scheme.

- There will be consultation that will allow developers to renegotiate non-viable section 106 agreements entered into prior to April 2010

- Consultation on changes to increase existing permitted development rights for extensions to homes and business premises in ‘non protected’ areas for a three year period

- To introduce permitted development rights to enable change of use from commercial to residential purposes, while providing the opportunity for authorities to seek a local exemption where they believe there will be an adverse economic impact.

For the full statement please follow this link: http://www.communities.gov.uk/statements/newsroom/2211838

Industry reaction to the latest proposed reforms have been mixed, with many commentators surprised at further reform being proposed so soon after the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework.  The underlying emphasis of the latest reforms is to get the country building again and to increase the supply of new housing to the market. The proposals have however been criticised by key environmental groups due to the increased pressure the reforms will create for building new homes within the Green Belt.

Others have suggested that the reforms are unnecessary with figures being quoted of 400,000, plus existing permissions for new houses that are not being implemented. Many have suggested that the supply of new homes will not change until the banks increase the availability of mortgages for potential purchasers.

Overall we think most of the proposals should help the planning system to respond positively to the difficult economic conditions the country continues to find itself facing.  For sites currently on the edge of viability, the ability to renegotiate S.106 agreements and affordable housing requirements could make a big difference in bringing sites forward for development.  We share the concerns about certain poorly performing councils and hopefully the threat of intervention by the Planning Inspectorates will spur such councils to up their game – though it is difficult to square this with localism.  The proposed extension of permitted development rights for changes of use from commercial to residential could help free up sites for development in some circumstances, but in densely built up areas business occupiers will not welcome the prospect of having new residential neighbours.  The proposals to allow larger household extensions will, we think, become watered down once reality dawns over the impacts on neighbours.

The full impact of the reforms will not be known until the government consults on the detail of the proposed legislation in the coming weeks. If you would like to discuss the implications of these latest reforms to either existing permissions or future development proposals please speak to a member of the Planning Team at Scott Brownrigg.

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Carbon Minus Design talk kicks off Green Sky Thinking Week

Posted on 21/09/2012 by Ed Hayden

In support of Green Sky Thinking Week, the London-wide platform which highlights expertise and innovation in sustainable design and build, Scott Brownrigg kicked off the week long programme of presentations, seminars and onsite visits with a talk on “Creating a carbon minus scheme for the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery”.   

The talk which attracted a group of 30 sustainability enthusiasts from across the industry was held at Scott Brownrigg’s Endell Street office.  

Project director Ed Hayden, who hosted the talk firstly mentioned a few of Scott Brownrigg’s other sustainable projects: Red Kite House, Kestrel House and 3 Assembly Square before introducing the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.

The design for King’s Royal Horse Artillery relies on several key aspects:
• the use of passive design to minimise the energy loads
• maximising the efficiency of the energy used
• use of a BIM model from concept stage and then on into detail design to visualise the building
• reducing of on-site waste by careful scheduling of all materials used

The passive design features include:
• a long south-facing façade (with woodlands to the north), made possible by the east-west orientation of the site
• intake of cool air from the woodland to the north of the building to naturally ventilation the damp, hot air inside the stables from the horses, using forced air movement induced by solar chimneys along each stable line
• clerestory windows for natural light
• rainwater harvesting

The materials were specified based on their performance and longevity and included FSC timber, zinc, steel, glulam, and brick. Some of the materials were salvaged from a run-down building which had existed on the site previously and had been reclaimed.

The vast quantities of organic waste from the horse manure and bedding has been treated as a resource, rather than problem for the project and whilst a number of biomass options were explored at the design stage including anaerobic digestion and making fuel pellets, a more straightforward solution was adopted involving passing the waste through a shredding unit into a store which directly feeds the biomass boiler.

The heat that is produced from the biomass boiler is then either used within the building for the underfloor heaing within the bedding, stack rooms and offices, is stored in a heat store, or  is used in a heat rejection unit to power Sterling engines which create electricity. Half of the electricity produced is used on site whilst the other half is exported back to the grid. The project also includes also gas-fired back-up boilers.

A quick cost analysis showed that the approx £980,000 combined capital cost for all the systems against the approx £135,300 cost savings per annum would result in a 7-year payback period.

Sarah Yates of Open City, organiser of Green Sky Thinking with Project Director, Ed Hayden.

The animated Q&A session which followed the presentation raised questions ranging from the lessons learnt from the project, to the biomass options considered (anaerobic digestion or landfill carbon sequestration options), to the sizing of the stack sections using the BIM model for fluid dynamic modelling. The buildings will be monitored over the next few years to see how they perform against the planned design.

All photographs: Minna Kantonen

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Guest Blogger Review: From Mantegna to Matisse at London’s Courtauld gallery

Posted on 28/08/2012 by Theresa Dowling

Welcome to Scott Brownrigg’s first industry guest blog article. This month Theresa Dowling reviews Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery. 

I found myself wondering how best to use the August bank holiday today in a meandering, relaxed sort of way. The sort that can take all day to discuss options with partners but which ultimately everyone resolves to do nothing due to ridiculous suggestions of already sold-out events, visiting Timbuktoo (discussed at 11am for a day trip) et al. So in essence, no one can agree. Thus, whilst I’m secretly pleased in being let off the hook, and looking forward to relaxing at home by doing nothing useful, particularly in the knowledge that tomorrow is back at the office with problems, deadlines and chaos galore, I chanced upon the drawing exhibition, from Mantegna to Matisse at London’s Courtauld gallery which closes on 9 September. Being a great fan of drawing and having studied fine art, God knows how this eluded me – but urgency reappeared on today’s agenda, and frantic urgency at that. Not least greatly reviewed by The Times and The Spectator on the Courtauld’s website.

“There are few art forms more vital, more revealing, more miraculous, than drawing…Here are artists at their most creative, inventive and unguarded…This is human magic” The Times

“So full of treasures I can scarcely even list them…Superlatives fail: see this show.”          The Spectator

When you click to read the full review on The Times though, it asks you for money, so I never got to read who wrote it and what it said (very irritating, I’ve never been convinced by this introduction of pay to read journalism). But whoever it was, they were right. This is a small exhibition that took my breath away. From the bold and brash strokes of  Degas and Turner to the exact and delicate poignancy of Leonardo, Mantegna, Rembrandt,  Veronese and Tiepolo– I could go on…

Images copyright: © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

The scope and diversity of this show dates from  the 1400s to the 1900s  and covers everything from charcoal, to colour drawings by Cezanne, and chalk, pen,  and everything else by artists who had so many ways of individual drawing. Drawing always gets me going – and even though this doesn’t give Scott Brownrigg’s readers  an architectural , engineering or interior design set of values, it will whet your appetite for the great, the once-contemporary, and the fantastic.

Theresa Dowling is Editor at FX and Group Editorial Director at FX and Blueprint magazines and co-producer of the FX International Interior Design Awards .

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Green Sky Thinking Week – Topic ‘Is carbon minus design just a load of horses**t?’

Posted on 20/08/2012 by Claire Donald

Is carbon minus design just a load of horses**t? … How did Scott Brownrigg use horse manure to deliver a carbon minus facility for the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery? In support of this year’s Green Sky Thinking Week, Scott Brownrigg Project Director Ed Hayden, will be hosting a talk on the subject on Monday 17 September. 

The regiment’s new BREEAM “Excellent” home in Woolwich, designed on behalf of Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and Morgan Sindall uses sustainability as its driving feature and incorporates a unique bio-fuel strategy to achieve a carbon minus status.  Providing stabling and full support facilities for 170 horses, the project uses a ground-breaking biomass plant, the first of its kind in the country, using renewable energy derived from horse manure and bedding to produce sufficient bio-fuel to supply the needs of the development,  it also allows surplus fuel to be exported off-site,  making it truly ‘carbon minus’.  In addition the development includes solar chimneys which provide natural stack ventilation to the horse stables; rainwater harvesting which provides large volumes of water for general use in the stables, and reduces water use throughout the site; and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDs) which manage surface water drainage on site including soakaways.

Created by Open-City, Green Sky Thinking Week (from 17 to 21 September 2012) provides a London-wide platform to highlight expertise, leadership and innovation in sustainable design and build.  See Green Sky Thinking website.  See AJ’s Footprint Blog.

Support for Green Sky Thinking Week is timely; the practice was highly commended in this year’s AJ100 Sustainable Practice of the Year Award.

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British Architects – Cedric Price

Posted on 27/06/2012 by Paul Broadbent

Eccentric, brilliant and out-spoken Cedric Price was a rebellious character with remarkable wit and sensibility. Price detached himself from classic reference, never citating the work of modern architects with the belief that stylistic or affiliates would dampen his creative thinking. He believed that design principles should transcend beyond style; for him architecture was about brilliant buildings designed for continual change.

“Irony, sarcasm, perversity, hardcore pragmatism, sometimes bordering on the philistine…Nobody has ever changed architecture with fewer means than Cedric Price.” Rem Koolhaas1

Despite many hurdles both financial and political, Price was resilient in his relentless struggle to continue interesting projects and to promote a radical alternative to mainstream architecture. Price’s work embodied game theory, cybernetics and technology. He maintained that architecture wasn’t just about arbitrary idea realisation but rather about creating a vehicle for positive social change.

 The Fun Palace (1961)

“The fun palace looks fantastic. I am your most ardent and faithful fan” David Greene, Archigram (1965)

Certainly one of Price’s most famous projects is The Fun Palace, it was an architectural game-changer embodied within a wild dream proposal. Cedric described the project as a “large ship yard”. The building was a steel cage that comprised of cranes, platforms, elevators, escalators, modules, ramps, screens and lifts – virtually every part of the structure was variable, illustrating the theatrical embodiment of work, play and machine.  The building was a container for structural performance and happenstance. It was humorous whilst simultaneously communicating a political message about the great potential for society in an enabled and online society.

Price remains a significant influence on the work of practicing architects in the world today. He was the mentor of Professor Will Alsop and his concepts can clearly be seen in the work Richard Rogers, Archigram, FAT and many others. Many of the built masterpieces across the world most draw their ideas from the work of Cedric Price.  With the today’s cultural landscape of rapid technological development, globalisation and interconnectivity, Cedric’s ideas have never been more of their time.

Sources  1 Koolhaas, Rem, RE: CP Basel: Birkhauser, 2002, p. 6. 2 Price, Cedric, The Fun Palace Brochure, 1961. 3 Letter from David Greene to Cedric Price, 8 March 1965, Cedric Price Archives.

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Sustainability Group Presentations – Presentation 1 Garth Lenz: The true cost of oil

Posted on 07/06/2012 by Richard Wilkinson

Scott Brownrigg’s Sustainability Group is running a series of discussions and seminars on topical sustainable, ethical and technological issues.

The subject matter is engaging and interesting for all, and aims to create discussion as well as enhance and extend the practice’s existing knowledge and expertise within established areas.  The presentations provide insight on new advances and issues both within the built environment industry and in the wider global context.

Incorporated into these sessions are video presentations from the ‘ideas worth sharing’ website TED with discussion on each topic following the presentation.  These will be held on a bi-monthly basis. 

Presentation 01
Garth Lenz: The true cost of oil
What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project, and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat. Garth Lenz’ touring exhibition, “The True Cost of Oil” , has played a major part in the fight against Alberta Tar Sands Mining.

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Neighbourhood Planning in London

Posted on 15/05/2012 by Susheel Das

‘Neighbourhood Planning in London’ an event recently organised by RTPI London and Planning Aid for London proved really insightful. It was interesting to hear that neighbourhood planning is beginning to get serious in London with the first neighbourhood plan set for examination and 14 DCLG frontrunner plans coming forward.

Alison Cremin from the Planning Division at the DCLG was there to discuss how the Government was taking forward the neighbourhood planning agenda following its adoption through the Localism Act 2011 last month (6 April).

Neighbourhood Planning is seen by the Government as the ‘real voice’ for local communities and for the first time, they will have a major statutory say through the planning process in helping to shape development in their areas.

Across the UK, there are about 230 neighbourhood frontrunner projects that are helping local communities and local authorities to kick-start the process in their area.  The Government is awarding grants up to £20,000 towards the cost of each project.

The Government has given over £3 million to four organisations to provide independent advice to communities in planning for their neighbourhood.  Two of these organisations, Planning Aid/Planning Aid in London and The Prince’s Foundation, are very active and shared their experience in London.

Generally, it was felt that existing Parish Groups had a head-start in this process.  In areas where there was no Parish, any new neighbourhood forum would need to have at least 21 members/stakeholders and reflect an accurate representation of the area.  Over 100 Local Authorities are currently working with local communities and have been generally supportive of the whole process.  

If you’re interested in finding out more about any of the London based projects or organisations discussed at the event, check out the following links:

Planning Aid for London    
The Prince’s Foundation 
Grove Park Community Group   
West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum   
Bloomsbury Village Neighbourhood Plan

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