Planning Working Reform Paper published, detailing potential changes to planning committee structures

Last week, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government published a Planning Reform Working Paper, identifying a number of potential changes to the system and operation of planning committees, and seeking responses from interested parties on the proposed changes. Whilst not a formal consultation, the Working Paper is intended to inform discussions with the sector, to determine whether and how to take the proposals forward. The document is identified as forming part of a series of Working Papers, indicating that further informal consultations from Government along these lines are likely to follow.

The policy document identifies out several issues with how planning committees currently operate:

1) Local schemes of delegation do not provide full clarity on whether or not an application will go to committee.

2) Too much time is spent considering applications which are compliant with the local plan or applications for post-permission matters.

3) In some instances, the development is rejected against officer advice, only to be overturned in appeal, delaying appropriate development and wasting taxpayer’s money.

4) An insufficient understanding among committee members of planning principles and law can be present, inhibiting their ability to make decisions in line with these principles and law, making decisions more vulnerable to being overturned on appeal.

5) A lack of transparency between committee decisions and their consequences is present, especially if a committee refuses an application and there is a successful appeal with costs awarded against the local planning authority.

The three major changes which the Working Paper proposes to address these issues are as follows:

• A National Scheme of Delegation

• Dedicated Committees for Strategic Development

• Training for Committee Members

National Scheme of Delegation

The first of the proposed changes seeks to abandon the process of Local Planning Authorities (LPA’s) setting their own rules about which planning applications are determined by committee. This would be supplemented by creating a more unified and consistent national scheme of delegation that would apply to all of England.

The following four options are proposed in the policy document:

• Delegation where an application complies with development plan – Decisions would be delegated to planning officers in situations where the application was wholly compliant (i.e. decision on allocated sites or reserved matters approvals which fully comply with local plan proposals). If an application does not comply with a local plan, the application will then be reported to committee.

• Delegation as default with exceptions for departures from the development plan – All applications would be delegated to officers unless specific circumstances apply.

• Delegation as default with a prescriptive list of exceptions – This option would require a national scheme of delegation to set out a prescriptive list of application types to be determined by committees. All applications for other planning consents must be delegated to officers unless, for applications for listed building consent, the application was for works which would cause substantial harm to a listed building.

• All of the above (Hybrid Model) – The final option suggests a combination of all the above.

Dedicated Committees for Strategic Development

The second proposed change is to mandate every LPA to have a separate planning committee dedicated to considering strategic development within the authority area.

The policy document anticipates these committees as a means to provide a clearer and more direct decision-making process for long-term developments of strategic significance for the authority.

Training for Committee Members

The third and final major proposal discusses introducing mandatory training for all planning committee members. This would ultimately prevent any Councilors who have not completed the training from taking part on a planning committee.

Training would include:

• Planning legislation

• The role of the development plan and national planning policy

• The planning application process

• Enforcement

• Code of conduct for planning committees

The mandatory training and certification would likely be provided online, with the course designed and procured by the MHCLG.

Conclusions and Next Steps

If and when the proposals are to be taken forward, they would be subject to primary legislation and would likely form part of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. This process would require a detailed consultation process in due course.

As stated above, the consultation is not formal, with no deadline for responses from the public. However, the paper concludes with a set of questions to gauge thoughts on the proposed changes, including which of the proposed delegation schemes is likely to be the most effective; what the size of strategic development committees should be; and how ‘strategic developments’ should be defined. Comments can be submitted via Citizen Space.

The proposed changes, if progressed, would impact the way planning applications are reported to planning committee, potentially providing a much greater degree of structure, consistency and certainty which is likely to be welcomed by the sector. Therefore, we will be keeping a close eye on if and how these proposals are ultimately taken forward for a formal consultation.

Article prepared by Myranda Morrison