Proposed planning changes bring ‘no guarantees’ of speeding up processes

The UK government has tabled a raft of amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently going through parliament – including giving the housing secretary a temporary power to stop councils from rejecting planning permission in England and Wales.

The government hopes the amendments will stop blockers to the planning process and speed up the rate at which new housing and infrastructure projects can be signed off.

It says councils have been too slow to approve new housing developments, claiming almost 900 projects have been blocked in the last year alone.    

But Robbie Owen, an infrastructure planning expert at Pinsent Masons, said the proposals were modest, and needed to go much further.

“There is nothing in the amendments that would be a significant game-changer for national infrastructure projects in terms of strengthening the consenting process and subsequent judicial reviews,” he said.

“Aspiring to cut the time taken by judicial reviews is to be welcomed but there are no guarantees here in terms of accelerating the delivery of infrastructure projects, which ministers are keen for the OBR to value ahead of the budget, given our independent judiciary.”

“Government should therefore be looking at other measures too, that are within their control.”

Such measures, he added, could include removing the requirement for the court’s permission to be given to bring a judicial review, which causes delay without bringing sufficient benefit; legislating for timescales to apply to development consent order (DCO) ‘redeterminations’, as currently there are no timescales and so redeterminations often drag on for well over a year; and providing, as an alternative to judicial review, for DCOs relating to critical national priority projects to be confirmed by parliament through an abridged bill process.

The proposals, which will go before the House of Lords from 20 October as the bill nears its final stages before Royal Assent, come as the government looks to ramp up confidence in development ahead of November’s autumn statement by the chancellor.

Also among the amendments are powers relating to approvals for large reservoir development, more onshore windfarms worth up to £2 billion in investment and allowing the Nature Restoration Fund to support developing marine and costal projects.

The amendments also include a ‘streamlining’ of Natural England’s role in the planning process, by allowing the environmental body more discretion on responding to development proposal queries from local councils.

Emma Barkas, a planning expert with Pinsent Masons, said the changes – such as allowing the Secretary of State to direct local planning authorities – had potential to be a helpful tool for driving the housing agenda.

“Like many of these tools though, the proof will be in how it is applied going forward,” she added.

“Avoiding the risk of planning permissions expiring following unsuccessful challenges simply because developers do not have the time needed to discharge pre-commencement conditions etc. can only be a good thing.”

“Conspicuous by its absence is any confirmed amendment to rectify the deeply difficult position we are in post Hillside/Dennis,” she said, referring to two significant cases on planning permission and severability. “There are still a couple of approaches proposed which seek to address this, including via secondary legislation or potentially through a new section 73AA, and there will be a collective sigh of relief across the industry when the government commits to a way forward.”

“With the New Town proposals coming in, flexibility in masterplans is an absolute must so it is imperative that government adopts a position on this.”

The proposed amendments come as ministers look to ramp up development and housebuilding in the UK, with a target of 1.5million new homes before the end of the parliament and 150 major infrastructure project decisions.

Housing secretary Steve Reed said the bill would ‘unshackle’ the planning process.

“It is simply not true that nature has to lose for economic growth to succeed,” he said.

“Sluggish planning has real world consequences. Every new house blocked deprives a family of a home. Every infrastructure project that gets delayed blocks someone from a much-needed job. This will now end.”