Planning and Infrastructure Bill

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, introduced by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner on 11 March, aims to accelerate housebuilding and essential infrastructure, positioning the UK as a clean energy superpower.

Alongside reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which were published in December 2024, the bill forms part of the government’s Plan for Change to boost economic growth. Key reforms include:

 

1. Planning Fees

Councils will set planning fees to cover costs, with funds reinvested to enhance decision-making efficiency. While there are concerns about increased costs for smaller developers, faster processing may ultimately benefit the industry by reducing delays.

 

Dr Victoria Hills, chief executive at the RTPI commented that “By deciding to invest planning fees into planning services, the government not only addresses a key request long advocated for by the RTPI, but demonstrates that it has listened to our repeated concerns about the chronic underfunding of the planning system and the resulting impact on day-to-day delivery.”

 

2. Statutory Consultation

The government will streamline the statutory consultee process to focus on relevant parties, aiming to reduce delays while ensuring democratic involvement. Striking a balance between efficiency and inclusivity is crucial.

 

3. Planning Committee Reforms

A national scheme will classify applications to determine which are handled by officers versus committees. This aims to expedite the approval process for smaller projects, though it’s vital to ensure local community concerns remain addressed.

 

4. Nature Restoration Funds

Developers will contribute to a fund for large-scale environmental projects, addressing ecological issues more effectively than site-specific solutions. This approach holds promise for creating lasting positive environmental impacts that benefit both the development sector and the community.

 

5. Compulsory Purchase Orders

The Bill sets out plans to reform the compulsory purchase order regime with the aim being that compensation paid to landowners is not excessive and the process of using directions to remove ‘hope value’ where justified in the public interest is sped-up. The British Property Federation commented, “The recent changes to Compulsory Purchase Orders in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 haven’t really been tested yet, so we need to proceed cautiously with further changes and make sure we do it in a way which fairly balances needs of communities with rights of landowners and stimulates rather than inhibits development.”

 

6. National Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs)

The government plans to reform the NSIP process to expedite approvals for major infrastructure projects, particularly in energy, to enhance energy security. While local opposition remains a challenge, these reforms aim to balance urgent energy needs with local concerns.

 

7. Incentivising Local Communities

The Bill proposes energy bill rebates for residents near new pylons to promote community acceptance of energy projects. This financial incentive encourages local support for clean energy initiatives, making communities stakeholders in the transition to cleaner energy. Proper implementation is essential to maximise benefits.

 

8. Spatial Development Strategies

New spatial development strategies from regional mayors and local authorities aim to enhance regional planning by improving land use and infrastructure. While their effectiveness may still be uncertain, these strategies have the potential to promote cohesive and efficient planning, benefiting both developers and local communities.

 

Conclusion

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill aims to expedite planning and construction while balancing efficiency with community involvement. It focuses on enhancing housing, infrastructure, and clean energy, presenting opportunities for developers, local authorities, and communities. While the proposals seem beneficial, it’s crucial to ensure they don’t overlook local concerns or democratic processes. If implemented effectively, these reforms could significantly improve the planning landscape and promote housing, infrastructure, and environmental sustainability.

 

This latest stage of the government’s planning reforms has been met positively by the industry. However, it is vital that all of this is adequately resourced in the forthcoming spending review if it is to deliver transformational change in the planning system.

 

Published 17th March 2025

Planning Fee Increase – 1st April 2025

Planning application fees will rise steeply from 1st April in a bid to plug a major funding shortfall for local authority planning departments. Fees relating to Prior Approval and Prior Notification applications are one example, where the charge will double. The new fee for changing the use of agricultural buildings to residential will be £516 (100% increase), while the fee for building an agricultural structure under permitted development (PD) will rise to £240 (100% increase).

 

The base fee for new agricultural buildings over 1,000sqm will also increase from £624 to £5,077, with an additional £624 for every 75sqm or part of it thereafter (this part remains unchanged).

See the table for examples.

There will also be three fee tiers for applications to vary or remove planning conditions:

 

* £2,000 (583% increase) for major applications
* £86 (71% decrease) for household applications, and
* £586 (100% increase) for all other cases

 

If you have any upcoming projects that require planning permission, now is the time to act to try and beat the 1st April deadline. If you would like to discuss the submission of a planning application, please get in touch with our planning consultancy team.

 

Email: advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk
Tel: 01284 700727

Published 28th January 2025

2025 – A Big Year for the Planning System and Development Industry?

The updated National Planning Policy Framework, revised practice guidance, and upcoming reforms are expected to begin establishing the conditions needed within the planning system to address the various obstacles to development.

 

The government’s new requirement for certain local authorities to add a 20 per cent buffer to their five-year housing land supply figure from July 2026 puts councils under fresh pressure but gives landowners and developers a chance to look again at prospective sites.

 

The previous update of the NPPF, freed planning authorities with up-to-date local plans from the need to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply. It also cut the requirement to four years for those with advanced draft plans.

 

The Labour government, recognising the damage this was doing to the development industry and its potential to further exacerbate the housing crisis, have worked quickly to undo those measures.

 

The changes in the latest NPPF therefore represent a significant adjustment meaning that if the annual housing requirement figure in a Local Authorities plan is 80 per cent or less than the local need figure calculated by the government’s revised standard methodology, they will have to add a new 20 per cent buffer to their five-year housing land supply figure from the beginning of July 2026. This effectively equates to a 6-year housing land supply.

 

Developers and promoters will be looking closely at which Local Authorities will soon be in this position and will be considering whether to take forward planning applications and appeals which last year would have been considered too risky.

 

Head of Planning Dan Hewett comments that, “Now is the time to reassess whether you have land with development potential, as there may be opportunities to secure allocations or planning permissions in the coming year or so on sites which were previously considered to have much longer-term prospects.”

 

If you would like to discuss the potential of your land or buildings in light of these changes, please get in touch with our planning consultancy team.

 

e: advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk
t: 01284 700727

Published 7th January 2025

Planning Team Ends Year on a High

Our Planning Team ends the year with planning application and appeal successes this week including the following:

 

*Planning Application Granted: Change of use of a commercial building used for packaging dog food to a children’s nursery.

 

*Planning Appeal Allowed: Change of use of land to B8 storage for self-storage containers.

 

Head of Planning Dan Hewett comments that the appeal decision is particularly pleasing due to the poorly informed nature of the reasons for refusal which included a misinterpretation of the rationale behind the designation of ‘Quiet Lanes’. The Inspector came down firmly on our interpretation that they are designed to enable users to enjoy country lanes in greater safety and encourage drivers to respect more vulnerable road users, rather than being used as a tool to limit or significantly calm traffic. Unfortunately, the LPA saw fit to refuse and then defend their decision to refuse a small-scale diversification project in a rural area, which will be a cost picked up by the taxpayer.

 

Please contact our planning consultancy team to discuss any planning needs you may have.

 

advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk

t: 01284 700727

Published 20th December 2024

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Published

On 12th December 2024, The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the much anticipated latest version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This carries forward many of the changes proposed in the consultation version. For decision taking, the NPPF applies from today. In respect of local plan making, transitional arrangement have been put in place.

 

The key points of note in the new document are:

 

• The Standard Method to assess the level of housing need increases by circa 20% in England in order to respond to areas with poor housing affordability. The result is a total of 371,541 new homes are required nationally per annum.

• A six-year housing land supply requirement comes into effect for local authorities with a local plan housing requirement over five years old, where it is 80% or less of the level set by the new Standard Method;

• The introduction of Grey Belt and clarification on circumstances whereby Green Belt land can be released for development;

• The level of affordable housing required on housing sites removed from the Grey/Green Belt;

• The approach to the sequential test for assessing Flood Risk; and

• The transition arrangements for the application of the new NPPF for decision taking and plan making.

• In respect of design, the word ‘beautiful’ has been removed from the new version, the goal of planning policy remains to ensure ‘high quality’ design.

• In respect of renewable energy and infrastructure, the new version brings to an end the effective ban on onshore wind generation in England.

 

Relevant parts of the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) have also been updated, including housing and economic needs assessment, housing supply/delivery and plan making.
The Government has also confirmed the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill next year, which will further reform the planning system, including a national scheme of delegation, which may effectively give more powers to professional planning officers and standardise the scope of elected planning committees. It is hoped that this will remove the delays and unpredictability which plagues the current planning committee system.

 

The updated NPPF is considered by the industry to be a positive step towards trying to achieve the government’s growth targets. It certainly sends a clear message to Local Planning Authorities that there is a need to get their Local Plans in place in order to have any chance of meeting the new housing targets or face continual waves of speculative applications.

 

It is clear that a wide range of sites will be required to enable the delivery of the Government’s ambitious housing targets. If you have any questions about the implications of the new NPPF on your land or buildings, please get in touch with our planning consultancy team.

 

e: advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk
t: 01284 700727

Published 13th December 2024

The King’s Speech: Implications for Devolution and the Planning System

A new Planning and Infrastructure Bill to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing and a bill devolving powers to elected mayors and combined authorities were announced in the King’s Speech.

 

The Devolution Bill for England would establish an “ambitious standardised” framework to expedite the process of transferring powers. A document published alongside the speech states that the new bill will establish a “simpler process” for setting up new combined and combined county authorities and moving towards “advanced mayoral settlements.” Its aim is to facilitate the quick provision of devolved powers to more areas. However, there is currently very little information available about what the new framework will look like.

 

What does this mean for planning?

 

The proposed process aims to enhance decision-making by granting additional authority over strategic planning, local transport networks, and skills and employment support. It will also facilitate the implementation of local growth plans that generate economic benefits for communities.

 

We are looking forward to hearing more about how Labour’s plan to devolve power will be put into action. However, this will not be a quick process, in the meantime, we can expect further details on short-term changes to policy by the end of July, whereby revisions to the NPPF can be expected to be published for a period of consultation.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact our planning team for more information regarding the potential changes.

advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk
01284 700727

Published 18th July 2024

Planning Update: Onshore Wind Farms

In our previous blog post, we delved into the details of the Labour Party Manifesto 2024, focusing on its implications for planning reform. Point 5 of our 16-point summary highlighted the Governments urgent need to revise the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This revision includes specific changes related to onshore wind farms.

 

During their campaign Labour stated that “to deliver our clean power mission, Labour will work with the private sector to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030”

 

During the Conservative Government, onshore wind farms were effectively banned via footnotes 57 and 58 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). These footnotes specifically targeted onshore wind farms, imposing stringent requirements for local support and making it extremely difficult to build turbines unless the areas were designated within local plans or development orders for this purpose.

 

The new Government has already confirmed in a ‘Policy Statement on Onshore Wind’ issued on the 8th July 2024 that footnotes 57 and 58 in the NPPF no longer apply. This means that onshore wind projects will now be considered on an equal basis with all other types of infrastructure. This change will be officially confirmed to parliament when it resumes sitting on the 18th July and will be reflected in the forthcoming NPPF update. Labour also announced that it will take an additional step by considering whether to classify large wind farms as nationally significant infrastructure projects to support quick determination.

 

These changes will lead to more opportunities for the development of renewable energy projects. If you would like to discuss the implications of these changes, please feel free to reach out to one of our expert planning consultants.

 

advice@wilsonwraight.co.uk

Published 16th July 2024

Change. Labour Party Manifesto 2024

What Next for Reforming the Planning System?
The announcement of the July General Election all but called time on the Conservative Government’s efforts to introduce changes to the planning system via new legislation. Labour’s direction of travel on planning reform was outlined in its manifesto as part of a wider agenda of “Change”, although unsurprisingly, there was an absence of detail in lieu of an overriding tactic of playing it safe.

 

What Labour was clear about in their manifesto was that “The current planning regime acts as a major brake on economic growth” and the proposals they offered provided a strong indication on the direction of travel. We have trawled their 136-page manifesto and summarise their proposals below:

 

1. Get Britain building again, creating jobs across England, with 1.5 million new homes over the next parliament.
2. Make the changes needed to forge ahead with new roads, railways, reservoirs, and other nationally significant infrastructure.
3. Set out new national policy statements, make major projects faster and cheaper by slashing red tape, and build support for developments by ensuring communities directly benefit.
4. Update national planning policy to ensure the planning system meets the needs of a modern economy, making it easier to build laboratories, digital infrastructure, and gigafactories.
5. Immediately update the National Policy Planning Framework to undo the most recent changes, including restoring mandatory housing targets.
6. Take action to ensure that planning authorities have up-to-date Local Plans and reform and strengthen the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
7. Support local authorities by funding additional planning officers, through increasing the rate of the stamp duty surcharge paid by non-UK residents.
8. Ensure local communities continue to shape housebuilding in their area, but where necessary, make full use of intervention powers to build new houses.
9. Take a brownfield first approach, prioritising the development of previously used land wherever possible, and fast-tracking approval of urban brownfield sites. But Labour acknowledge that brownfield development alone will not be enough to meet our housing need.
10. Without changing the Green Belt’s purpose or general extent, Labour intends to take a more strategic approach to greenbelt land designation and release to build more homes. The release of lower quality ‘grey belt’ land which they describe as being the “poor-quality and ugly areas of green belt which should be clearly prioritised over nature-rich, environmentally valuable land.”
11. Build a new generation of new towns. Alongside urban extensions and regeneration projects, these will form part of a series of large-scale new communities across England.
12. Introduce new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning in order to deliver growth on a larger than local scale.
13. Further reform compulsory purchase compensation rules to improve land assembly, speed up site delivery, and deliver housing, infrastructure, amenity, and transport benefits in the public interest.
14. Deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and strengthen planning obligations to ensure new developments provide more affordable homes.
15. Ensure exemplary development is the norm not the exception by building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and creating places that increase climate resilience and promote nature recovery.
16. Implement solutions to unlock the building of homes affected by nutrient neutrality without weakening environmental protections.

 

To begin moving towards achieving some of the above, new legislation in the form of a ‘Towns Bill’ is expected to be a priority which will focus on delivering new towns as well as a broader raft of planning measures.

 

In the short term, the industry awaits the immediate updating of the National Policy Planning Framework with interest. Labour set themselves a target of 100 days to publish the update and the clock is ticking. However, a new version in such a short timescale is, in reality, likely to represent more of a holding position.

Published 9th July 2024

Changes to Rural Permitted Development Rights – 21st May 2024

Permitted development rights exist to provide certainty for specified forms of development and to remove the time and cost of applying for planning permission.

The government has brought in amendments to four permitted development rights that relate to barn conversions, farm diversification schemes and agricultural development.

The changes are intended to provide greater planning flexibility to encourage rural growth, housing delivery and support the agricultural sector.

The headline changes to the General Permitted Development Order are set out below:

 

Part 3, Class Q – Conversion of Agricultural Buildings to Dwellinghouses

The right allows up to a total of 10 dwellinghouses to be delivered and 1,000 sqm of floorspace to change use (an increase from the previous 5 units and 865 sqm).

The provisions for larger and smaller dwellinghouses are replaced by a maximum floorspace per dwellinghouse of 150sqm (previously a complicated combination of smaller dwellings and larger dwellings was possible).

As part of the changes, the erection of a single storey rear extension is permitted providing that does not extend beyond the rear wall of the existing building by more than 4 metres and is on land covered by an existing hard surface. Also, protrusions to the external dimensions of the building of up to 0.2 metres to accommodate fixtures and fittings, such as window sills and guttering (previously works could not extend beyond the existing building).

An additional advantage for owners is that far more barns will qualify under Class Q, including a former agricultural building that was, but is no longer, part of an established agricultural unit.

 

Part 3, Class R – Conversion of Agricultural Buildings to Flexible Commercial

The changes increase the amount of floorspace that can change use from 500sqm to 1,000sqm and expands the range of changes of use in relation to an agricultural building and any land within its curtilage.

These new changes will now include general industrial purposes and use as an area or place for outdoor sports or recreation. General industrial purposes are limited to the processing of raw goods (excluding livestock) which, other than ancillary goods, are produced and sold on the site.

 

Part 6, Class A – Development on Agricultural Units of 5 Hectares +

The changes increase the ground area which may be covered by a new, extended or altered agricultural building from 1,000 to 1,500sqm.

 

Part 6, Class B – Development on Agricultural Units between 1 and 5 hectares

Increases the limit on the maximum cubic content by which an agricultural building may be increased from 20% to 25% and increases the limit on the ground area of any building extended under Class B from 1,000sqm to 1,250sqm.

Thankfully, there are transitional provisions included in the Order, which allow critical parts of the existing provisions to extend for 12 months up to 21st May 2025.

If you have agricultural buildings that are not being used anymore, we can assist you in navigating through the Permitted Development Rights process to discover their untapped potential and transform them into income generating assets. Our team of expert planning consultants are available to help, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Published 3rd May 2024

 

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Update

A new updated version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published this week by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Some of the key changes are as follows:

• Prioritising development on brownfield sites and densification of larger towns and cities. Michael Gove in announcing the updated Framework mentioned Cambridge as an area for continued growth stating that “It is going to set the standard for how we protect and preserve what makes a city special and also how we design and equip it for the century ahead.”
• Increased status for Neighbourhood Plans in determining planning applications for housing providing they contain policies and allocations to meet an identified housing requirement.
• Local planning authorities are not required to identify and update annually a supply of specific deliverable sites sufficient to provide a minimum of five years’ worth of housing for decision making purposes if certain criteria are met.
• Continuous referencing to achieving or recognising ‘beautiful’ designs and the wider landscape.
• Emphasis on upwards development in urban areas for residential and commercial premises where the development would be consistent with the existing height and form of the surrounding area. Including allowing ‘mansard roof extensions’ on suitable properties.
• Further emphasis on new sites for large residential schemes to be put forward through allocated sites in new or updated local plans.
• The new NPPF also clarifies that there is no expectation for Green Belt boundaries to be reviewed during local plan-making, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
• General support for the development of smaller sites and new emphasis on community led development(s).

To discuss these changes or any planning related matters please contact our team of expert planning consultants.