Planning – Law Journals

Planning update: LURB and reforms to national planning policy

Fiona Sawyer reviews the government’s consultation on reforms to national planning policy along with the draft NPPF The current five-year housing land supply buffers of 5%, 10% or 20% will be removed, and LPAs will be able to include historic oversupply in their five-year housing land supply calculations. As promised by the Secretary of State …

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Case update: Stoke-on-Trent City Council, the Home Office and asylum seekers

While conditions at Manston processing centre were grabbing headlines, less was said about the planning challenge brought by local councils wanting to prevent local hotels being used as temporary accommodation by asylum seekers. Saira Kabir Sheikh KC considers the case An injunction under s187B is a powerful and useful tool for a local planning authority. …

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Planning update: The autumn statement and more

Fiona Sawyer provides a brief summary and analysis of the impact on planning reform of the Autumn Statement and the government’s subsequent announcements We’ve been told that the investment zones programme is not abandoned altogether, but will instead be ‘refocused’ to ‘catalyse a limited number of the highest potential knowledge-intensive growth clusters’ centred on universities …

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The Growth Plan: Political upheaval and planning

Fiona Sawyer, Martyn Jarvis and Matthew White consider the Growth Plan and the uncertainties surrounding other planning reform It is telling that local authorities are already adopting their own biodiversity net gain policies, somewhat overriding whatever delay to legal implementation the government may propose. Planning is a close relation of politics – and events in …

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Dear Prime Minister: A planning and environmental wish list

After a summer of hustings, debates and garden party faux pas, a new Prime Minister is now finally in Number 10. Nicola Gooch and Claire Petricca-Riding provide a mini planning manifesto The country urgently needs to find local and reliable alternatives to imported gas and oil reserves. We do not have the luxury of time. Pinning all our …

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Planning: Pretty appealing

Nicola Gooch considers some recent High Court, Court of Appeal and Planning Appeal decisions The Court of Appeal has confirmed something that I have been advising clients for a very long time. When it comes to CIL, retrospective consents are extortionately expensive. Although planning may not be generally considered to be the ‘sexiest’ profession, it can …

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Planning and the public sector equality duty: A timely reminder

Tracy Lovejoy considers the public sector equality duty and its impact on planning decisions in the context of recent case law A failure by a local public authority to comply with its PSED is a legal error and the resulting planning decision can be judicially reviewed. As with many public functions, there is no private …

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Building Safety Act 2022: Planning update

Fiona Sawyer and Matthew White consider the implications for developers of the Act, and in particular of s128 Section 128(4) provides that the prohibition from carrying out development will apply despite planning permission having been granted. In PLJ November 2021 (#392), we wrote about requirements in the Building Safety Bill which related to planning. Planning …

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The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill: Planning changes

Nicola Gooch provides an initial overview of the planning-related proposals in the Bill A very large proportion of the Bill is devoted to measures to promote both the digitisation and simplification of local plans. On 11 May 2022, the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill was placed before Parliament. The introduction to the policy paper notes …

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Urban developments: Unplanned consequences?

Stephen Scott assesses a recent legal challenge brought following recent changes to permitted development rights RCA were concerned that, notwithstanding the government’s stated aims, the changes risked upsetting the balance of town centres too far in favour of residential use if there were not the checks and balances provided by the former planning process. Subsequent …

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