🏆 The #Planoraks 2020 🏆 - most radical planning reform of the year
Gather round the festive fire, friends. And let me tell you a story.
A long time ago, we used to have things called “use classes”. And if you wanted to change from one use to another, you needed something a few of us old-timers used to call “planning permission”. Agh, it was the blazing hot early summer of 2020. Some of us were visiting Barnard Castle. There was no White Paper to speak of. Not a zone in sight. Mutant algorithms hadn’t even started yet to tear the very fabric of our country apart. If you wanted to attend a planning inquiry or a plan examination, you had to load up the car with boxes of paper, and drive off to a chilly/roasting council chamber somewhere. And shunt trestle tables around into different shapes. Members of planning committees used to actually spend time sitting in the same room together.
A different time. A simpler time. And, yes, we’ve come a long way since June. Heck, we’ve come so far that I was even ready to start doling out the big annual awards last week because I thought… what else could 2020 possibly have in store for humble #Planoraks like us. Ha! Ye of little faith.
On 3rd of December 2020, the Ministry proposed (drum-roll, please….) the most radical planning reform of the year. [ANOTHER one? Ed.] Yes. Another one. Happy holidays.
So. What’s happening this time?
Right. Deep breath:
Remember Class E? Here’s my 3 minute primer.
The nub of it is simple - a general “commercial, business and service” use class covering retail, food, financial services, gyms, healthcare, nurseries, offices and light industry. Movement between those (until September 2020) different kinds of use no longer needs planning permission.
Class E is a game-changer for the high street and beyond. One of the most significant rollings back of regulatory control in the planning system for decades. Because, as I said here:
It’s actually happening, and it’s happening now. Subject to some fiddly transitional provisions, Class E kicked in from 1st September 2020. No ifs. No buts. No consultations. No refunds.
Lots of the White Paper ideas really could be radical, but it’s still only a consultation, lots of details are still TBD, even with a fair wind and a committed Government, the Minster now tells us the reforms are “some years off”. And their real target is changing the way the planning system works. Which is (obviously) very important stuff. But Class E’s even more fundamental. It changes the scope of what English town planning is actually about. For reasons I told you about here.
Big stuff. Which goes right the heart of planners’ ability to… plan. To control changes between different kinds of use. How do you get even more radical than that?
You roll in trying to solve the housing crisis, that’s how!
So, back to 3rd December 2020 and the Ministry launching this consultation. It runs to 28th January. What’s the big idea? A new permitted development right. What for? To go from Class E (which, as many of you have already noted, stands for more-or-less “Everything”) to C3 residential use. Boom.
Is that idea really so radical? Don’t we already have office-to-resi PD rights? And retail-to-resi PD rights?
Well, yes, but - this would go much further than those. We’re talking about PD rights to convert restaurants, all kinds of business premises, indoor sports facilities, creches… all sorts. Into residential. No size limits (vs. the existing limits for retail and light industrial units). Even in conservation areas. With no need to apply for planning permission. For more of the detail, read the consultation then go (as you always should, let’s be honest) to Simon Ricketts and Nicola Gooch. The 🏆 #Planorak 🏆 award for blog title of the year goes - in a landslide - to Simon’s piece about this topic here.
So, how’s this actually going to work? Well, prior approval applications. Those are what we do now instead of applications for planning permission (I jest. Sort of). More about this fascinating trend in a future post and the increasing pressure, prominence and conditionality now wrapped up into the once-modest prior approval process. But one thing’s for sure: if you want to finally boot lawyers out of your planning system (heresy!), taking your development management criteria out of policy and putting them into regulations isn’t a great way to start.
As normal, it’s the proposed list of prior approval conditions where things will start to get interesting for the proposed Class E to resi PD right. Those conditions will cover lots of things: flooding, transport, contamination, noise from existing commercial premises, “adequate natural light”.
All very well, you may be thinking, but what about the impact of losing retail? Aren’t we supposed to be worried about that? Well, it’s not a proposed issue for prior approval. Unless you’re in a conservation area. Where it is. In recognition of “the conservation value that retail frontage can bring to conservation areas”, the idea is to make the impact of the loss of the ground floor to residential a prior approval concern. But only there. That’s an interesting idea, if it implies that retail frontage tends to bring less value outside conservation areas. When designating conservations areas in the first place may have literally nothing to do with retail at all.
Anyway. The future of the High Street. It really is changing before our eyes. Get your consultation pencils sharpened, my friends. They’ve had at least a few weeks off by now. Is this a good idea? Bad idea?
Well, remember Mary Portas? Her 2011 review into our High Streets told us that:
“One of the biggest unnecessary restrictions on business seems to be the use class system, which makes it difficult for buildings to have different uses and to change uses. For example it should be straightforward to convert to or from the D2 (leisure) class; and use Local Development Orders to remove these and other requirements. This would have a big impact on the number of empty properties and encourage more creative use of second, as well as first, floor spaces on our high streets.”
This week, Mary’s pushing the kindness economy. “From Stoke Newington to Stoke-on-Trent”, we’re told, pop-ups and local boutique businesses will thrive in high streets with strong local communities, and a diverse mix of retail, entertainment, culture and wellbeing. No doubt about it: more flexibility brings with it bucket-loads of opportunity. To revitalise the centres of our villages, towns and cities - those most critical engines of our economic, cultural and social lives. In an era when we’re going to need those centres to be more flexible, attractive and exciting than ever before.
On the other hand, we’re left - aren’t we always - with questions. What about place-making? Didn’t the Government used to have something or other to say about planning for the right homes in the right locations? What about that fast-track for beauty we’ve been hearing about this year? What about this brave new focus on quality, design and local vernacular? Bath. Belgravia. Bourneville. Heck, anywhere you like, so long as it starts with a B.
How - if at all - will these new residential schemes contribute to affordable housing need. Or meeting other kinds of planning obligation? What about quality? What about the sheer extent and conditionality of our permitted development rights, and the exploding importance of the prior approval regime (again - more on this in another post)?
What role should national policy actually play in these prior approvals? What about the statutory development plan? Statutory duties like section 38(6) or the Listed Buildings Act? Other material considerations? Will Councils simply try to shut this big new idea down through Article 4 directions? How are Councils to deliver sound development strategies when they’re left with such modest control over development management? And under the new system sketched out in the White Paper - even if that’s still years away - how could the zones for growth or renewal actually function if you can move seamlessly between the many Class E uses, then into residential?
Does the planning system have much of a role now in protecting the future of retail? Take the intend to publish London Plan. Lots of sensible-looking policies in there about district centres focussing on a viable range of functions including convenience retail. Assessing need for and allocating sites to support the health and viability town centres. Sequential tests taking a town-centre first approach for town centre uses (how that stacks up against Class E, well who knows). Does this big new idea rather pull the rug out from under generations of town-centre-first policy-making?
Questions. Questions. More questions.
But yes, in the end, because this proposed reform starts with Class E - the biggest de-regulatory step for decades in the planning system - and then builds on it by rolling in a proposed response to the housing crisis, the jury’s decision was unanimous. Here it is, folks. The proposed Class E - C3 permitted development right has run away with the 2020 🏆 #Planoraks 🏆 award for the most radical planning reform of the year. 🍾 Congratulations 🍾!!! Now that truly was a crowded field.
If you’d like to talk a bit more about this, how prior approvals actually work, what Local Authorities may do under Article 4 to stop these changes happening and a raft of other interesting tidbits… come join me and the good folks from Town Legal (including Mr Ricketts himself, no less) on 15th December at 5.30pm here.
And in the meantime, stay safe and well, #planoraks. Not long to go now. Not long to go. 🎄
