The Government has been particularly busy over the last month reforming the planning system, not just with some minor tweaks here and there, but this time also proposing some radical wholesale reforms for the future.
In this blog post, we seek to provide a brief summary and also our comments on these reforms.
Changes to use classes
The Government has made the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2020 which will come into force on 1 September 2020. These Regulations can be accessed in full at the website link below:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/757/contents/made
The Regulations make significant changes to the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 by introducing three new use classes:
- Class E (Commercial, Business and Service) – This includes uses as retail, restaurant, indoor sport recreation or fitness, medical or health services, day nursery uses, offices, financial and professional services, and any other services which it is appropriate to provide in a commercial, business or service locality.
- Class F.1 (Learning and Non-Residential Institutions) – This includes non-residential uses for the provision of education, art display, museums, public libraries, public halls, places of public worship or religious use and law courts.
- Class F.2 (Local Community) – This includes uses as a shop which has an area of no more than 280 sq m mostly selling essential goods including food and where there is no other such shop within 1 km, a community hall/meeting place, area for outdoor sport or recreation and an indoor/outdoor swimming pool or skating rink.
Use Classes A1, A2, A3, parts of D1 and D2 and Class B1 are subsumed into the above new use classes.
Uses as a pub/drinking establishment (A4), hot food takeaway (A5), live music venues (D2), cinema (D2(a)), concert halls (D2(b)) and bingo halls (D2(c) will become sui generis uses.
Use Class B2 (general industrial) has been retained under the Regulations, but in an amended form.
Use Classes C1, C2, C2A, C3 and C4 are unamended by the Regulations.
New permitted development rights
The Government has made the following Regulations which amend the permitted development rights under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015:
- The Town and Country Planning (Permitted Development and Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 which came into force on 1 August 2020. A full copy of the Regulations can be accessed at the link below:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/632/regulation/22/made
- The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2020 which will come into force on 31 August 2020. A full copy of the Regulations can be accessed at the weblink below:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/755/contents/made
- The Town and County Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2020 which will come into force on 31 August 2020. A full copy of the Regulations can be accessed at the weblink below:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/756/contents/made
The above Regulations provide for the following new permitted development rights which enable existing dwellinghouses to be extended, new dwellinghouses to be built over commercial, mixed use or residential premises, and buildings to be demolished and new dwellinghouses constructed in their place:
- New dwellinghouses on detached blocks of flats (Class A, Part 20) – This Class allows the construction of up to two additional storeys of residential accommodation on top of existing, purpose-built blocks of flats.
- Enlargement of dwellinghouse by construction of additional storeys (Class AA, Part 1) – This Class permits the enlargement of a dwellinghouse by the construction of new storeys on top of the highest existing storey of the dwellinghouse. Two additional storeys may be added where the existing dwellinghouse is two or more storeys tall, or one additional storey where the dwellinghouse consists of one storey.
- New dwellinghouses on detached buildings in commercial or mixed use (Class AA, Part 20) – This Class permits construction of up to two new storeys of flats on top of detached buildings in commercial or mixed use, including where there is an element of residential use.
- New dwellinghouses on terrace buildings in commercial or mixed use (Class AB, Part 20) – This Class permits the construction of new flats on top of terrace buildings in commercial or mixed use. Two storeys can be added if the existing building is two or more storeys tall, or one additional storey where the building consists of one storey.
- New dwellinghouses on terrace buildings in use as dwellinghouses (Class AC, Part 20) – This Class permits the construction of new flats on top of terrace dwellinghouses. Two storeys can be added if the existing building is two or more storeys tall, or one additional storey where the building consists of one storey.
- New dwellinghouses on detached buildings in use as dwellinghouses (Class AD, Part 20) – This Class permits the construction of new flats on top of detached dwellinghouses. Two storeys can be added if the existing building is two or more storeys tall, or one additional storey where the building consists of one storey.
- Demolition of buildings and construction of new dwellinghouses in their place (Class ZA, Part 20) – This Class permits the demolition of vacant / redundant buildings that have a use within class B1, or are a single purpose-built detached block of flats within class C3, or are a combination of both, and their replacement with residential development.
All of the above new permitted development rights are subject to limitations and conditions stated in their particular class and also a requirement to obtain prior approval from the local planning authority which will involve a range of factors to be considered.
Future planning reforms – “Planning for the Future”
On 6 August 2020 the Government published its White Paper entitled “Planning for the Future” (“the White Paper”) which proposes radical wholesale reforms to the planning system. The White Paper is currently subject to consultation which will close on 29 October 2020.
The Government has also at the same time published another paper for consultation (which closes on 1 October 2020) entitled “Changes to the current planning system”, which briefly includes proposals to change the standard method for assessing local housing need, the securing of First Homes, adjusting the small sites threshold for developers contributing to affordable housing, and extending the Permission in Principle to major development. We do not discuss this paper further in this blog post, but instead focus our discussion on the White Paper.
The two papers can be accessed in full at the following links below:
The White Paper contains 24 proposals divided into 3 pillars as follows:
- Pillar One – Planning for development
- Pillar Two – Planning for beautiful and sustainable places
- Pillar Three – Planning for infrastructure and connected places
We discuss below what we consider to be the 5 key proposals in the White Paper:
- Identification of Growth, Renewal and Protected Areas – The Government proposes that local plans identify three types of land (which shall be applied to all land):
Growth Areas – These are areas of land which are suitable for “substantial development” and these areas will have the benefit of outline planning permission.
Renewal Areas – These are areas of land which are “suitable for development” and will cover existing built areas where smaller scale development is appropriate. There will be a statutory presumption in favour of development being granted for specified uses.
Protected Areas – These will include sites and areas which, as a result of their particular environmental and/or cultural characteristics, would justify more stringent development controls, such as green belt land, areas of outstanding natural beauty, conservation areas, local wildlife sites, areas of significant flood risk and important areas of green space. - Development management policies to be established at a national scale – The Government proposes that development management policies will be established at a national scale with the NPPF becoming the primary source of policies. Local plan policy will be restricted to site or area-specific requirements, including broad height limits, scale and/or density limits for land included in Growth and Renewal Areas.
- Faster decision-making – The Government proposes several measures to ensure faster decision-making on planning applications, including the digitalisation of the planning application process, more standardised applications, clearer and more consistent planning conditions including some standard national conditions, making the statutory time limit (8 or 13 weeks) for determining a planning application a firm
deadline and where an application is not determined within the time limit there would be an automatic refund of the planning application fee, as well as an automatic rebate of the planning application fee if a developer is successful at appeal. - Statutory timescales introduced for adoption of local plans – The Government proposes to require local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate to meet a statutory timetable (of not more than 30 months in total) for the adoption of a local plan which will be broken down into five key stages with corresponding timescales.
- Introduction of a new consolidated “Infrastructure Levy” to replace Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 in the securing of developer contributions – The Infrastructure Levy would be a flat-rate, valued-based charge, set nationally, at either a single rate, or at area-specific rates. The Levy would be charged on the final value of a development and be levied at point of occupation. Local planning authorities could borrow against Levy revenues to enable infrastructure to be forward funded. The Levy would also apply to changes of use which require planning permission and to some permitted development rights including office to residential conversions and new demolition and re-build. Local planning authorities would be able to use funds raised by the Levy to secure affordable housing which could be secured through mandatory in-kind delivery on-site.
Our comments
Our overall view on the Government’s reforms to the planning system which we have discussed in this blog post is positive, particularly in regards to the changes to the use classes which in our view will provide more flexibility for how buildings can be used and re-used.
The introduction of the new permitted development rights again is a positive step to encourage more housing development, but here of course the ‘devil is in the detail’ as there are still conditions and limitations which apply to these rights together with a prior approval process to be complied with which will have regard to a range of factors.
The Government’s White Paper “Planning for the Future” proposes some broad strokes in terms of how a future planning system might operate, some of which we welcome such as measures to speed up decision-making on planning applications and preparation of local plans.
However, we have significant concerns about the Government’s proposals to replace the use of Section 106 with a new Infrastructure Levy. By all means this Infrastructure Levy should replace the current Community Infrastructure Levy which has been an inflexible and overly complex system for both local planning authorities and developers since its first introduction in 2010, however Section 106 in our view has an important role to play in the planning system, not just to secure developer contributions, but also to provide for other planning obligations imposing restrictions and regulating planning impacts from a development, and provides a long-standing workable and flexible system for both local planning authorities and developers. Seeking to replace Section 106 with the new Infrastructure Levy by itself would simply put in place another rigid inflexible system and therefore in our view would be the Government repeating past mistakes.
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
