Government alters thresholds for scrutiny of neighbourhood planning appeals

Since July 2014, the communities secretary has considered the recovery of appeals involving residential development of more than 10 homes in neighbourhood planning areas for his own determination. According to a ministerial statement from housing and planning minister Brandon Lewis, neighbourhood planning appeals will continue to be scrutinised for a further six months, but recovery will be limited to proposals involving more than 25 homes.

Lewis’s statement said recovery will no longer extend to appeals in areas where a neighbourhood plan has passed the examination process and become part of the development plan of an area.

Lewis told parliament: “In light of the experience which has no accrued on neighbourhood planning, I intend to limit the criteria [for recovery] to include proposals for residential development of more than 25 units in areas where a qualifying body has submitted a neighbourhood plan to the local authority but the relevant plan has not yet been made”.

Planning expert Abigail Webb of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The decision to increase the criteria threshold for recovery of appeals involving residential development proposals in neighbourhood plan areas further supports the positive role that neighbourhood planning has played in shaping development across the country since neighbourhood plans were introduced through the Localism Act in 2011."

"This is further supported in that recovery of such appeals is only in circumstances where a qualifying body has submitted a neighbourhood plan to the local authority but the relevant plan has not yet been made and not where the neighbourhood plan has become part of the development plan of an area. It will be interesting to see if the time period for the communities secretary's scrutiny of such appeals is further extended after this additional six month period," Webb said.