Leadership Essentials: New Government and Planning 14 November 2015

1. Leadership Essentials: New Government and Planning 14 November 2015 Ashley Pottier, Planning Directorate, DCLG ashley.pottier@communities.gsi.gov.uk

2. DCLG Priorities The key DCLG priorities focus on: Manifesto Commitments - Budget - Productivity Plan

3. Planning reform 2010-15 Local Compulsory community consultation Sustainable Simple 1300 pages of policy down to less than 50 NPPF and Guidance Review Localism Act Robust Evidence of need and 5 year land supply Duty to cooperate Regional Strategy revocation 6000 page s of guidance reduced and now on web Presumption in favour of sustainable development Strong protections still in place Neighbourhood Planning Tackling LA poor performance Proportionate Effective Conditions Deregulation and Simplification EIA Thresholds Speeding up appeals NSIP Growth and Infrastructure Act & Infrastructure Act Award of costs Community Infrastructure Levy Use Class Order Statutory consultees Information requirements Major Infrastructure Unblocking stalled sites Permitted development rights Section 106

4. Ministers: continuity and change

5. Ministerial vision • The top-down targets of the past planning system did nothing to deliver the homes our country needs. In contrast, putting local people in control has led to record numbers of homes being granted permission and support for house building to grow. • Proposals ensure we go further and faster, removing the barriers so we can keep the country building and support hard-working people to achieve their dream of home ownership

6. Setting the agenda

7. Manifesto commitments • 200,000 Starter Homes for first time buyers by 2020 • A new Right to Build for local people to build or commission their own home • Ensure that more than 90% of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020 • Strong protection for the Green Belt and other designations • Ensure communities know up-front that necessary infrastructure will be providedwhen new homes are permitted • Encourage communities engaged in neighbourhood planning to complete the process, and let people have more say over local planning • Give local people the final say on wind farm applications • Support safe development of shale gas

8. Productivity Plan measures • Streamlining local plans, ensuring plans are prepared in all areas & strengthened guidance on duty to cooperate. • Permission in principle for housing sites in new brownfield registers, and fast-track certificate to agree development on small sites. • Strengthening the planning performance regime. • Allowing an element of housing in major infrastructure projects. • Maximising release of unnecessary employment land for housing, and supporting higher density development around commuter hubs • Reviewing threshold for converting agricultural buildings under PD. • Piloting limited freedom to ‘build up’ in London. • Reducing the Mayor of London’s call-in threshold. • Introducing a dispute resolution mechanism for Section 106. • Reform of compulsory purchase. • Review of planning for mobile communications infrastructure.

9. Six themes for planning

10. Resourcing

11. Performance • Raising the performance bar to further improve the speed of decisions on major schemes – from 40 to 50% decisions made on time; can expect threshold to rise? • Extending the performance regime to non-majors. • Performance bar for non-majors is likely to be higher? • Consulting on potential threshold for non-majors?

12. Plan-making “In cases where no Local Plan has been produced by early 2017 – five years after the publication of the NPPF – we will intervene to arrange for the Plan to be written, in consultation with local people.” Written Ministerial Statement, 21 July 2015 • Review group: • Content of local plans   • Local plan preparation process   • Agreeing strategic requirements   • Implementation • Housing and Planning Bill: • More flexible powers, enables LPA ownership • Could take a priority approach?

13. Decentralising “I want every place in this country to consider how they can assert their strengths and make their mark.” “One of the things that has, in my view, held back the decentralisation of power is the fragmentation of local government. Too often differences between neighbours – side by side, upper and lower – have distracted from the shared interests that unite an area. These divisions must be overcome. Some places have done it through combined authorities, others through unitaries, others still through mergers. I will never impose an arrangement – and neither can one tier impose its will on another tier; rather, a local consensus will need to be agreed.” Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, July 2015

14. ‘Zoning’ “The government is committed to an urban planning revolution on brownfield sites… …legislating to grant automatic permission in principle on brownfield sites… subject to the approval of a limited number of technical details. On brownfield sites, this will give England a ‘zonal’ system, like those seen in many other countries, reducing unnecessary delay and uncertainty.” Fixing the Foundations, July 2015

15. Permission in Principle (1) • Permission in principle model • “Permission in Principle” (PIP) • Certainty on “in principle issues” of land use, the location and the amount of development • “Technical Details Consent” (TDC) • Sufficient process to deal with technical matters Permission in Principle (PIP) Technical Details Consent (TDC) Permission to Build

16. Permission in Principle (2) Applying the PIP Model 2) 1) Application for permission in principle (Small sites) Plan and Registers grant permission in principle Neighbourhood Plan Brownfield register Local Plan Application for Technical Detail Consent

17. Brownfield Register (1) National Planning Policy Framework • Planning policies and decisions should encourage the effective use of land by re-using brownfield land provided that it is not of high environmental value. • Local councils can set locally appropriate targets for using brownfield land. Manifesto Commitments • Ensure that brownfield land is used as much as possible for new development. • Require local authorities to have a register of what is available, and ensure that 90 per cent of suitable brownfield sites have planning permission for housing by 2020. Statutory Register • Will improve the availability and transparency of information, providing certainty and encouraging investment. • Help to measure progress in delivering permissions.

18. Session 2: Brownfield Register • ‘Permission in principle’ to be granted for suitable sites on local registers • To exclude sites that require screening for EIA/HRA (which can be taken forward though the usual planning application route) and sites that have existing planning permissions • Decisions about potential sites that are eligible for ‘permission in principle’ will be for local authorities • Draft list of potential sites to be subject to public consultation and consultation with statutory consultees • Following consultation councils to publish list of sites granted ‘permission in principle’

19. Housing Increasing housing supply + increasing home ownership Extension of right to buy 200,000 Starter Homes for first-time buyers under 40 years old, 20% below open market value Doubling the number of custom-built and self-built homes by 2020