This month the Government and its various departments and organisations have been busy issuing new and updated guidance which will be of relevance to developers, local authorities and other professionals who work with the planning system
In this post, we discuss the new and updated national planning practice guidance published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and also the guidance on recording planning decisions published by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
New and Updated Planning Practice Guidance
In July, the Government published its revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The revised NPPF sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how these should be applied. Our previous blog post discusses in detail the revised NPPF
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has now this month published new and updated national Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) to reflect the changes in the revised NPPF
New PPGs have been published on plan-making and build to rent. The new PPG on build to rent discusses planning for build to rent, affordable housing requirements and scheme management. The new PPG on plan-making discusses maintaining effective cooperation, statutory duty and the role of plans, evidence base, plan reviews and delivery of strategic matters
Updated PPGs have also been published on local plans, housing need assessment, neighbourhood planning, and housing and economic land availability assessment
For details of the key provisions in the new and updated PPGs, the Royal Town Planning Institute’s The Planner magazine provides an extremely helpful summary for each individual PPG which can be accessed at this website link
Despite somewhat contradicting the Government’s original intention to streamline national planning policy into a single document through the introduction of the NPPF and replace the previous large amount of policy documents, the PPGs act as a useful source of practical guidance to support the implementation and interpretation of the provisions in the NPPF and the new and updated PPGs are therefore welcomed
The new and updated PPGs can be accessed on the MHCLG website at this link
Guidance on Recording Planning Decisions
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has this month published a guidance entitled Recording Planning Decisions
The LGSCO is responsible for considering complaints made against local authorities, typically after the complainant has unsatisfactorily tried to resolve their complaint through a local authority’s own complaints mechanism. According to the LGSCO, in the previous year it received over 2,000 complaints and enquiries about planning and development services provided by local authorities which is not surprising given that the planning system is commonly criticised for the delays or irrational decisions of local authorities
The new guidance has been published with the aim of assisting local authorities to make better decisions on planning matters which are also transparent and clear. The guidance considers the key themes of consideration of material planning considerations, information taken into account and clear records of a decision and reasons. It also discusses good complaint handling in planning and planning committee decision making
The LGSCO states in the guidance that it typically finds fault in planning decisions made by local authorities where these authorities either fail to clearly set out and explain how material planning considerations have been considered, fail to make it clear what has been taken into account when reaching a decision, or fail to provide clear records of decisions and the reasons for them
The guidance goes on to state that the LGSCO would expect to see a contemporaneous record showing how an authority considered any material planning matters and any comments from the public, before reaching its decision about what action to take and that they may consider failure to do so as fault on the part of a local authority
We find of particular concern the statement by the LGSCO in the guidance that some local authorities have simply abandoned writing officer reports when assessing planning matters where there is no legal requirement for authorities to prepare these reports. This clearly affects the transparency of the planning process and the ability of members of the public, developers and the professionals working with the system to have confidence in it. It is hoped that the local authorities currently undertaking such practices consider the recommendations made by the LGSCO in the guidance and improve their procedures accordingly
The new guidance can be accessed on the LGSCO website at this link
Note: all comments and views expressed in this blog are merely opinions and provided for information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice which can be relied upon. Should you require legal advice on a matter then please contact us
