On 13 May 2020, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in response to the impacts from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) published an update on planning matters, including temporary measures to make it easier to operate the planning system.
The update can be accessed in full at the website link below:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-planning-update
We discuss below what we consider to be the key measures proposed by the Government in the update:
- Community Infrastructure Levy – The Government intends to amend the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations 2010 to enable charging authorities to defer CIL payments, to temporarily disapply late payment interest and to provide a discretion to return interest already charged where they consider it appropriate to do so. The easements can be applied to developers with an annual turnover of less than £45 million.
- Validation of applications – The Government encourages planning applications to be made online and the remote processing of planning applications, however states that it is important that arrangements are in place to ensure paper applications can still be validated.
- Determination timescales – The Government does not intend to change the determination timescales for planning applications, however states that developers should be encouraged to agree extensions of time where necessary and note that there is also the option to appeal to the Secretary of State on the grounds of non-determination.
- Publicity and consultation for planning applications – From Thursday 14 May the Government will introduce temporary regulations to supplement the existing statutory publicity arrangements for planning applications. Local planning authorities will now have the flexibility to take other reasonable steps to publicise applications if they cannot discharge the specific requirements for site notices, neighbour notifications or newspaper publicity. These steps can include the use of social media and other electronic communications and must be proportionate to the scale and nature of the proposed development. Guidance to accompany these regulations will also be published.
- Virtual planning committees – The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 made on Thursday 2 April 2020 provide the power for local authorities to hold virtual meetings. These regulations apply to all local authority meetings up to 7 May 2021. The Government is encouraging local planning authorities to take advantage of these powers to hold virtual planning committees – rather than deferring committee dates. They should also consider using ‘urgency powers’ within their constitutions to give senior officers delegated authority to make decisions.
There is also guidance provided by the Government in its update on Local Plans, Neighbourhood Plans, Compulsory Purchase and Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.
We appreciate that this is a testing time for the property and development industry and our lawyers at Planning Clarity Legal remain available during this time should you require any legal assistance.
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
