by Hardwick Legal | Jul 13, 2015 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
On the 10th July 2015, the Government published its ‘Productivity Plan’ - a comprehensive statement of intent that sees planning facing yet more reforms aimed at greater deregulation and streamlining.
“This plan addresses particular challenges in the form of a planning system regarded by many as one of the most significant constraints facing the economy, bringing delay and inflexibility…”
Economics, Productivity and… Planning?
The transformation of planning is complete - it is now firmly embedded as an economic consideration in the Government’s eyes. This was not always the case. Yet here it now sits alongside such unfamiliar bedfellows as workforce issues and trading and investment. Clearly, planning is now very much seen as a critical tool in delivering ‘prosperity’. Whether this is right and whether it deserves to shoulder blame for the country’s economic shortcomings are, of course, entirely different questions.
Nevertheless, attacking an “excessively strict” planning system, the Government looks to continue along the path it first laid back in 2011 with the Localism Act, followed by its cornerstone, the NPPF, in 2012. It is ironic that the current planning reforms can trace their origins back to a piece of legislation which has at its core the concept of ‘localism’. On the one hand, there is talk of increased devolution of planning powers at a Mayoral level; on the other, the increased threat of designation for ‘underperforming’ LPAs. The latest picture emerging is one of greater centralisation, with a ‘top down’ approach at the fore which is at odds with the localism rhetoric used to champion the likes of Neighbourhood Planning. Perhaps localism is still important but not at the expense of productivity?
Areas Targeted for Reform
1. Local Plans
The dissatisfaction with the lack of Local Plans currently in place finds expression in the following measures where the Government will:
- publish a deadline by which Local Plans must be in place;
- publish league tables showing progress;
- step in to intervene where they are not produced and arrange for them to be written ‘in consultation’ with local people;
- introduce streamlining measures to reduce the length and process involved in implementing or amending a plan;
- strengthen local authorities’ duty to cooperate in respect of key housing and planning issues; and
- produce guidance and consider how policy changes might support higher density housing around key commuter hubs and the release of redundant commercial land.
2. Zonal System for Brownfield Land
Perhaps the most eye-catching of all the proposals, this focuses on house building and seeks “an urban planning revolution on brownfield sites”.
The Government will legislate to grant automatic permission in principle on brownfield sites identified on statutory registers.
This will introduce a zonal system bringing us in line with the likes of the United States with the hope that it will reduce delays and uncertainties.
As ever, the devil will be in the detail.
There will still be approval required for a limited number of “technical details”. We await confirmation of precisely what such details may comprise and, equally, what if any guidance is issued to address viability issues - a traditional obstacle to brownfield development.
3. Speeding up Planning Decisions
The Government wants all planning decisions to be made on time and proposes:
- legislation to bring major infrastructure projects with housing elements within the NSIP regime;
- tightening the planning performance regime and expanding it to cover minor applications;
- reducing net regulation on house builders; and
- introducing a dispute resolution mechanism for s.106 agreements.
4. Increased Devolution of Planning Powers
The Government intends to proceed with the devolution of planning powers to the Mayor in London regarding wharves and sightlines and to bring forward proposals allowing the Mayor to call-in applications of 50 homes or more (the threshold is currently 150).
There are also plans to deregulate planning further.
The Government and Mayor will consider upward extensions and removing the requirement for permission for a limited number of stories up to the height of an adjoining building.
Planning devolution will not just take place in the capital.
The future Mayor of Greater Manchester will get powers to establish Development Corporations and promote CPOs.
5. Starter Homes and Right to Buy
As expected, the Government will pursue its controversial extension of the Right to Buy to tenants of Housing Associations via the Housing Bill.
It will also “re-focus” DCLG budgets towards “supporting low cost home ownership for first time buyers”.
The Elephants in the Room
Despite their forceful presentation, the latest proposals do leave some glaring questions unanswered.
Land supply is critical to addressing housing shortfall and the zoning of brownfield land alone is not the solution. The future of Green Belt land remains a political hot potato but a failure to address it as part of the wider house building question, runs the risk of undermining the effectiveness of these reforms.
Similarly, at a more practical level, there still appears to be little formal recognition of the insufficient resourcing of many LPAs. Are designation and Government intervention in Local Plans the answer? Planning decision making is highlighted as a key component in the latest streamlining process. However, against a backdrop of dwindling resources and increasing workloads, will casualties on the front line blunt the impact of the Government’s latest productivity tools?
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
Planning for Reform…Again!
by Hardwick Legal | Jul 10, 2015 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
Last night the LexisNexis PSL Property team and their guests enjoyed a unique evening at the 20 Fenchurch Street Sky Garden (view photographs here).
What do you see when you look down on London from an elevated position Tall buildings? The river? Famous sights such as the London Eye or the palace?
Richard Wentworth CBE, as he explained to us yesterday, sees none of these things. When he looks down on London, he sees you. In fact, he sees all of us.
There is, however, no need to cast an anxious glance skywards. You won’t find Richard flying by in a helicopter with a high-powered telescope.
As an artist and a curator, he is known for challenging the accepted function of (often everyday) objects. Similarly, when Richard looks down on London he doesn’t see an immovable “snapshot” that can be described as a list of “things”.
Instead, he sees the current - but constantly changing - result of millions of decisions made by other humans over the course of our history. In the form of a building, for example, he sees the dreams of an architect; the skill of a craftsman; and of course the professional guidance of a property lawyer or two! This applies equally to the height and location of a tree or the colour of a London bus.
The fluidity that results from this can be seen in the changing face of London’s landmark buildings. To illustrate this, Richard contrasted two buildings by another Richard (Rogers) – the “practically hand-built” Lloyd’s Building (“probably the last ‘arts and crafts’ building in London) and the “digital meccano” of its more modern neighbour, the Cheese Grater’.
It was with this new-found perspective that those of us lucky enough to be at the Sky Garden bar yesterday evening took in the panoramic view from the 35th floor of the “Walkie Talkie”.
We hope it will augment your experience as much as it did ours the next time you’re looking down over the city.
Finally, with more good weather in store for London, we’ll leave you with the same two bits of advice Richard ended on:
1. Seen an interesting building? Try the door-handle - you may be suprised how many buidings are publicly accessible (as are many of London’s “secret” gardens); and
2. Remember to look up - there’s always a chance that, above that chain restaurant, you’ll find some interesting architecture!
(Article: Panicos Iordanou Images: Rachel Buchanan)
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
An artist and a lawyer walked into a bar…London through an artist’s eyes
by Hardwick Legal | Jul 10, 2015 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
Last night the LexisNexis PSL Property team and their guests enjoyed a unique evening at the 20 Fenchurch Street Sky Garden (view photos here).
Located at the top of the ‘Walkie Talkie’, the Sky Garden is a feat of architecture and engineering created - primarily at least - in order to comply with a condition attached to the building’s planning permission pursuant to s.106 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990.
This got me thinking more broadly about the availability - and visibility - of public spaces in new developments. I recently discovered one such space at Concert Hall Approach, in the South Bank area. I say ‘discovered’ since - hidden behind foreboding metal railings - it looks like private property.
Walk around the South Bank at lunchtime and you’ll find throngs of visitors eating “on the hoof” or - if they are lucky - perched on a traffic bollard. Stroll a little way down Belvedere Road, however, and you’ll find a small, unlocked gate. On this gate, is a sign announcing that the tranquil manicured lawns and gushing water fountain beyond are, in fact, open to the public. Again, we have section 106 to thank for that and I have often used the gardens to picnic under the envious gaze of passers-by.
Emboldened by this discovery, I set out to find more gardens which have been provided by developers and landowners but are unlikely ever to be used to their full potential because they are (deliberately or otherwise) hidden in plain sight.
“Your search returned zero results”
Searching Google brought up very little in terms of a London-wide plan. On reflection, this is somewhat surprising. Where planning authorities have gone to the effort of securing a place for public enjoyment and utility, why not facilitate such use by broadcasting it?
“X” marks the spot…
Faced with this apparent dearth of information, some colleagues and I discussed the possibility of putting together a plan of our own.
The interactive map below plots out the location of the nine “private but public” gardens we know of. (Know of another? Leave us a comment!).
A London-wide plan: a job for the GLA?
What is ultimately needed is a London-wide plan - easily discoverable on the internet and on the ground - identifying all green spaces open to the public. The correct driver for such an initiative would arguably fall under the GLA’s All London Green policy framework (the ‘ALGG’).
The ALGG is intended to promote the design and delivery of ‘green infrastructure’ across London and is comprised of:
- the London Plan policies on green infrastructure and urban greening - and those relating to open spaces, biodiversity, trees & woodland, and river corridors;
- the All London Green Grid Supplementary Planning Guidance and a series of ALGG Area Frameworks. Part of this - the Pocket Parks Project - already has a map showing 100 pocket parks, but only those that have been chosen to be funded by the project. These projects range from community orchards to…wait for it… edible bus stops.
No such thing as bad publicity?
Free public spaces can be expensive to maintain, monitor, clean and secure, so attempting to limit their use by hiding them in plain-sight is perhaps a predictable and - to some extent - understandable response.
Nevertheless, landowners and developers should not fear the ‘publicity’ that a comprehensive and visible plan would bring to such spaces.
If other developments with such spaces were easily identifiable, this could enable landowners to save costs by collaborating and sharing expenses in relation to maintenance and upkeep etc.
The central documentation of such spaces would also give developers better access to information about how a request for a particular green space provision adds to, rather than duplicates, similar spaces nearby.
London needs you!
What other seemingly private but publicly accessible gardens are you aware of in London? Let us know in the comments section below and we’ll add them to our map!
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
“X” marks the spot – revealing London’s secret gardens…
by Hardwick Legal | Jul 9, 2015 | Purpose Built (LexisNexis)
With the Chancellor’s speech still ringing in our ears, we bring together the most important features of the Summer Budget 2015 for planning lawyers alongside expert analysis and industry comment.
What are the headlines for the Summer Budget for planning lawyers and why?
Martha Grekos, leader of the planning and infrastructure team, Irwin Mitchell:
Chancellor George Osborne has been freed from the shackles of coalition government to deliver his seventh Budget but the first purely Conservative Budget in 20 years. When the Chancellor announced this Budget back in May 2015, the Chancellor said that he wanted to ‘turn promises made in the election into a reality’. Indeed, he introduced this budget as ‘a big budget for a country with big ambitions’.
However, the Chancellor would appear to have decided to tease us—the proposed planning reforms are not to be announced until Friday 10 July 2015.
Before that time, we would like to see clearer thinking in getting more houses built. The greatest threat to—in particular—London’s economic resilience is the weakening of housing affordability. The only solution for this is to build more homes. Giving money to first time home buyers or simply moving housing wealth around without building more homes just means that the price of owning a house is pushed up. It is anticipated that the planning reforms will not be so radical to include, for example, development in the greenbelt, but could include, for instance, making low-cost employment land available for housing development. Meanwhile, house building and property shares will be hit by the various measures unveiled—the move to tighten non-dom tax rules, with permanent non-dom status to be abolished, will hit companies with a focus in London and could impact on the level of foreign investment.
The infrastructure proposals were very much focused on:
- the creation of the new £15bn road fund to improve roads for the rest of the decade;
- putting Transport for the North on a statutory footing;
- introducing a ‘seamless, Oyster-style’ ticketing system in order to connect Northern England together; and
- the promise to put ‘the power into the Northern Powerhouse’ by giving Manchester powers over the fire service, a land commission, children’s service and employment programmes (similar devolution deals are being negotiated with Liverpool and Sheffield).
It will be interesting to see whether these measures will stimulate and support spending on critical infrastructure and provide an opportunity for other parts of England to build themselves as a counterbalance to London. Time will tell whether these initiatives will deliver.
James Parker and Paul Grace, associate directors in the planning team, Berwin Leighton Paisner:
The Summer Budget was, on face value from the Chancellor’s speech, relatively light touch in terms of planning and infrastructure, which seemed to reinforce the message that the government is going to let the industry crack on with delivering. That said, of course there remain the existing political and electoral hurdles to delivery of housing, fracking (two Cuadrilla fracking applications recently refused in Lancashire), airport capacity (Airport Commission’s recommendation for a third runway at Heathrow) and windfarms—clearly resolving these issues was not on the radar today.
In overview, ‘productivity’ is the new buzzword, rather than growth.
In terms of infrastructure, this got an early mention but little more was said in the actual speech, save for a couple of points below. However, the detailed Budget document told a slightly different story and set out a number of commitments across the whole of the UK. The Chancellor was keen to impress this was a ‘one nation’ government.
On investment, the Chancellor reminded the Commons that the UK was a founder member of the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which he said was ‘driven by our determination to connect Britain to the fastest growing parts of the world’, and into which the government is to make a capital contribution of £2bn.
On transport, the Chancellor reminded us that four-fifths of journeys are by road, but as a country we don’t invest nearly enough when compared to others such as France (the Chancellor noted the quality of our road network ranks behind Puerto Rico and Namibia).
Hence the government proposes to create a new roads fund, into which revenue from newly announced vehicle excise duty (VED) bands for new cars (no more zero VED for new cars) will be put for direct investment into road improvements. The government will engage with devolved administrations as to how that investment will be applied. The Chancellor also noted the improvement works on the M4 and Greater Western line, as well as the £7.2bn investment in transport in the South West. In the accompanying Budget paper there is a commitment to a second road investment strategy before 2020.
In respect of London, Crossrail 2 and the Olympic park regeneration were mentioned. This included a reaffirmed commitment to supporting £10bn of transport investment in London by 2020.
But the balance with the rest of the country was recognised—hence a favourite of the Chancellor, the Northern Powerhouse and devolution, featured strongly in the speech. He announced he had reached agreement with ten Greater Manchester council authorities to give further powers (including in respect of a new land commission). On inspection of the detail, there is also mention of granting more planning powers, subject to the agreement of the Cabinet member for the district in question. There were also ongoing discussions with certain cities (Sheffield, Liverpool, Leeds) and county regions (West Yorkshire) about devolution and directly-elected mayors. Transport for the North is to be put on a statutory footing to set out its policies and investment priorities in a long-term strategy for the North and will receive £30m of extra funding over the next three years.
Further enterprise zones are being consulted on, and local administrations will be able to decide on Sunday trading hour changes.
On housing delivery, further planning reforms are due to be announced on Friday 10 July 2015.
Anita Rivera, head of planning, DAC Beachcroft:
The government’s proposals will shift higher earners who currently qualify for subsidised council and housing association properties into the private rented sector. While that should carry the welcome benefit of alleviating the demands placed on our inadequate national stock of social housing, to be reserved for those who need it most, it remains to be seen whether the earnings thresholds of £40,000 in London and £30,000 elsewhere will strike the right balance, particularly for those at the margins—those in the capital will be most affected. The supply of accessible private rented housing must therefore be able to meet the needs of those affected by these changes and so will be reliant on further investment in the buy-to let–market.
In the same Budget, however, the government is reducing the tax relief available to buy-to-let landlords on their mortgage interest payments and surely that will only dis-incentivise supply. If the private rented sector is to sustainably alleviate reliance on subsidised social housing, then not only must it be financially accessible, but properties and private landlords must also be fit for purpose so that tenants are treated fairly and have the stability they need and would otherwise benefit from in the social sector.
Richard Ford, partner, Pinsent Masons:
Four things in particular have caught my attention.
The commitment to £56bn funding on transport improvements during this Parliament is pleasingly up from £40bn in the last Parliament, the key focus being regional road schemes. This will lead to more development consent order schemes being promoted.
The establishment of a dedicated body to realise value from rail public land and property assets in a new approach to station redevelopment and commercial land sales. This will build on the experience of regenerating land around Kings Cross Station and Stratford in East London. It will be interesting to see how existing Network Rail initiatives already focusing on this will fit in and I expect more joint ventures will be pursued.
The commitment to bring forward proposals for a sovereign wealth fund for communities that host shale gas development. Ironically, given this government’s approach to on-shore windfarms, this is likely to be akin to existing community benefit schemes for communities that welcome wind farm developments, though are likely to be significantly more generous.
Were there any surprises?
James Parker and Paul Grace:
From a planning perspective there is not much to write home about in terms of the speech, albeit a mention for Crossrail 2 is good news for London and the country as a whole. The National Infrastructure Plan will be due for its annual overhaul in the autumn—that seems to be the more likely home for detailed announcements.
The brief mention of the political hot potato of housing delivery isn’t a surprise, but its brevity was perhaps a precursor to something more meaty in the planning reforms due to be announced—watch this space.
In terms of political focus and perception, while the speech had other things to focus on, infrastructure and planning didn’t do too badly in the actual Budget document, which lists at a regional level the projects where the government is moving forward, including issues such as:
- extending HS1;
- making East Anglia more accessible from London; and
- considering the reclassification of northern parts of the A1(M) as full motorway.
Richard Ford:
The absence of anything significant in relation to house-building is surprising given the continued house building deficit, albeit a Housing Bill is expected in early autumn 2015.
What actions should planning lawyers be taking as the dust settles?
James Parker and Paul Grace:
The lack of specific focus on infrastructure, but the keenness on productivity, seems to indicate that we are where we thought we were—albeit the announcement on 10 July 2015 in terms of planning reform will need to be awaited before we can fully assess matters. So the legal profession will need to see what opportunities, as well as challenges, these reforms bring for clients.
We await the planning reforms—right now we still have the same issues we had yesterday.
What has been the reaction from industry?
Dan Lewis, senior infrastructure policy advisor, the Institute of Directors:
‘The government is right to push for the northern powerhouse. Increasing transport links within urban areas is the priority for the North, which is why the debacle at Network Rail is so worrying. Its crippling level of debt must have played a part in the delay to the vital electrification of the TransPennine rail line.
‘We welcome the Chancellor’s decision to set aside revenue from vehicle excise duty for road building. Investment in roads delivers greater returns that many other forms of transport infrastructure.’
Want to know more?
A full overview of the Summer Budget 2015 can be found here: Summer Budget 2015: Overview of tax announcements, LNB News 08/07/2015 117.
The views expressed by our Legal Analysis interviewees are not necessarily those of the proprietor.
Source: LexisNexis Purpose Built
The Summer Budget 2015 for planning lawyers
