The Kings Speech recently brought forward the Government’s intention of creating a new Planning & Infrastructure Bill. This will speed up the planning system on large developments by reforming compulsory land purchase and streamlining decision making on national projects such as energy and gigafactories.
On a more local level, some changes to planning are also taking shape. There is proposed a new national scheme of delegation and the modernizing of the planning committee structure. This could see the end of Councillors being able to “call-in” small household applications for debating at planning committee and create more of a focus on debating larger schemes. There is also likely to be a restriction on how many times a scheme can go before a planning committee. Ensuring decisions are made at the first attempt rather than rescheduled later.
Planning fees are likely to become more localized, set by local councils rather than at a national level. Current proposals include the doubling of the householder planning application fees.
There has already been the reinstatement of the mandatory housing targets and encouragement for local authorities to bring forward more housing particularly affordable housing potentially using areas of Green Belt that may have seen previous development.
Brighton Planning will keep everyone updated, but if you need planning advice, please contact us.