News Type: Other

Our recent appeal victory against Leeds City Council has been published in this month’s “The Planner” magazine! Some strange conclusions from the Inspectorate but delighted to secure a positive and ultimately pragmatic result for a large new bar on behalf of our client Arc Inspirations on what was a highly disputed case.

On 8th February 2019 the National Audit Office (NAO) published a report on ‘Planning for new homes’. The report is part of a series on housing in England, including Housing in England: overview (2017) and Homelessness (2018). It assesses how effectively the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government supports the planning regime to provide the right homes in the right places.

The report concludes that the Government’s planning system is “underperforming and cannot demonstrate that it is meeting housing demand effectively” which won’t come as surprising news for housing developers across the country.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government aims to support the delivery of 300,000 new homes per year from the mid-2020s. To increase supply, it has implemented reforms to the planning system to help local authorities in England determine how many, where and what type of new homes should be built. This includes a standard method for local authorities to assess the number of new homes needed in their area.

Between 2005-06 and 2017-18, 177,000 new homes per year have been built on average and the number has never exceeded 224,000. To meet its ambition, the Department will need to oversee a 69% increase in the average number of new homes built since 2005-06.

As of December 2018, only 44% of local authorities had an up-to-date local plan setting out their strategies for meeting the need for new homes, despite it being a legislative requirement. The report highlights that if a local authority can’t show it has a five-year supply of land for housing, developers have greater freedoms to build where they want, risking “ill-suited developments”.

In terms of the speed of planning applications, the report notes that local authorities are increasingly processing planning applications within target timescales, but the NAO considers that this might reflect a greater use of ‘time extensions’ rather than increased efficiency. The report also highlights that Planning Inspectorate is slow to determine appeals from developers whose applications have been refused. The time it took to determine an appeal increased from 30 weeks to 38 weeks between 2013-14 and 2017-18.

The new National Planning Policy Framework, published in July 2018, has sought to implement further changes to boost housing delivery, but it remains too early to understand whether the changes will be effective. However, it is difficult to see a significant jump in the speed of housing delivery following a 37.9 per cent reduction in core funding for planning departments in the last seven years and an overall 15 per cent reduction in local authority planning staff between 2006 and 2016. Alongside the Government’s priority for housing delivery there needs to be an equal priority to address the resource and skills shortage within local planning authority departments to help deliver housing.

The Government published finding of an independent review on Planning Appeal Inquiry timescales this week.  The review, chaired by Bridget Roswell, found that: ‘the average time to decide a planning inquiry could be slashed from an average of 47 weeks to around 26 weeks’.

The report makes 22 recommendations to speed up the inquiries process including the introduction of a new online portal for the submission of inquiry appeals and preparation of a strategy for recruiting additional Inspectors so inquiries can be scheduled sooner, reducing the length of time they take to conclude.

The reforms proposed are largely straightforward and practical and require the Planning Inspector to become more proactive in managing the inquiry process. Whilst only 2% of appeals are determined through inquiry, they remain a valuable option in cases where detailed presentation and cross-examination of key issues is required and, overall, the proportion of inquiry appeals that are allowed is higher than other appeal procedures (including hearings and written reps).

Firstplan welcome any measures which will speed up the management of the process without compromising the quality of decisions. If implemented, Roswell’s recommendations should indeed help to cut the currently excessive determination times, giving developers more certainty and reducing costs associated with the inquiry process.

Ministers will publish a formal response in the ‘coming months’.

If you have any queries regarding planning appeals procedures or timescales, please feel free to contact one of the Firstplan team.

Firstplan is pleased to introduce our newest member, Stephanie Gray.   Stephanie joins us as a Senior Planner with over seven years’ experience in the private sector having advised on a variety of planning and development projects throughout the UK.

Stephanie is one of six new appointments made in the last few months to grow and strengthen our successful team.   We have welcomed new members at all levels, from graduate planners through to the appointment of our new Director, Sally Miles.  Firstplan has an excellent team of planners and support staff and we look forward to a busy and productive 2019.

Last night Firstplan celebrated its 15th year in business at the W Hotel’s Perception Bar in London. We were delighted to see so many of our clients and professional colleagues turn out to help us celebrate the occasion.   Firstplan was established back in 2003 with just one planner and has since grown to a successful team of 25 planners and support staff dealing with projects nationwide.  Here’s to the next 15 years!

Firstplan is pleased to announce the appointment of Sally Miles as a new Director.  Sally joins us from Amazon where she was the European Planning Manager.  She has worked with a number of Firstplan staff during more than 25 years in private practice, and she has a wealth of planning experience in the retail, logistics, industrial and trade sectors.  She has a proven track record of successfully delivering planning permissions for complex projects which meet the commercial interests of her clients.

As we celebrate our 15 year anniversary, Firstplan is delighted to be continuing to expand and strengthen our team of planners, and we welcome Sally to the company.

Firstplan is delighted to introduce our two newest members, Anna Ambroziewicz and Audrey O’Mahony.

Anna is an MRTPI Chartered Planner and joins us with previous experience in private practice where she was involved in delivering heritage, commercial, residential, retail and urban regeneration projects.

Audrey graduated from University College Cork with a masters in Planning and Sustainable Development and has since gained valuable experience in the public sector. She joins us as an Assistant Planner and is working towards membership of the RTPI.

Firstplan is delighted to announce that Jack Clemance, Josh Dickinson and Tim Humphries have all been elected for Membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).  Jack, Josh and Tim all successfully secured membership via the Licentiate Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) route, supported by dedicated in-house mentors.

Our team at Firstplan now includes 16 Chartered RPTI planners with more working towards membership through our successful graduate programme.  We are currently looking for new graduates and junior planners to join our team.  For further details, please contact Rhonda Craig – rcraig@firstplan.co.uk

Firstplan is delighted to announce that Gerard Manley has been elected for Membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). Gerard has worked for Firstplan since graduating from Newcastle University and has been involved in a variety of projects throughout the UK for some of the leading names in conservation, commercial, residential and retail development.

Firstplan is delighted to have been Highly Commended by the judges at the Planning Awards last night for our work on the Everyman Cinema in Muswell Hill in the category ‘Award for best use of arts, culture or sport in placemaking’.

Firstplan acted as planning consultant in respect of the hugely ambitious restoration and refurbishment of the Grade II* listed former Odeon cinema in Muswell Hill to enable independent cinema operator, Everyman, to occupy the building.

The former Odeon Cinema in Muswell Hill opened during the heyday of cinema going in 1936 and is considered one of the finest art-deco style cinemas in the country. Despite a decline in attendance since the 1970’s and the subsequent threat of closure, the building has continued to operate as a cinema throughout the last eighty years making it an established part of Muswell Hill’s social and architectural heritage.

Whilst many historic cinemas in the UK have been converted to bingo halls, pubs or become redundant, this project offered the ideal opportunity to invest in the much needed restoration of this Grade II* listed building and to secure its long term future as a cinema.

Working with Fusion Architects and Heritage Collective, we put together a series of planning and listed building applications to allow alterations to the main auditorium including the reinstatement and refurbishment of the original lower stalls which, despite being one of the most significant spaces within the theatre, had previously been redundant for several decades.

Key to the projects success was ensuring that the newly restored cinema enabled Everyman to operate a viable business, which would justify their significant initial expenditure. Following detailed negotiations with Historic England and Haringey Council it was agreed that two innovatively designed independent ‘cinema pods’ could be inserted into the circle area, creating a total of five screens ranging from 40-250 seats. The ‘pods’ create smaller, more intimate cinemas offering a unique experience, whilst the reintroduction of the lower stalls allows an appreciation of the grandiose auditorium space.

The project has significantly enhanced this much loved heritage asset and restored it to its former art-deco glory allowing the building to continue to sit proudly in the heart of Muswell Hill and, most importantly, giving the building a long term, viable purpose.

The Planning Awards were held at Savoy Place last night and a good time was had by all.