#PlanningReformWeek 2024 - almost there…
Do you feel it? That sense of something. Something coming. Something big. Something that may just be a little seismic. About to arrive. You can’t see it yet. But you know it’s there. It’s like that bit in Jurassic Park with the rippling cups of water? Mmm… maybe that’s not the perfect analogy [you THINK? Ed.] Or… Tony’s first song in West Side Story [Better! Ed.]: galivanting down the streets of Manhattan’s Upper West Side singing “Could be. Who knows. There’s somethin’ due any day, I will know right away, soon as it shows…'“
Well, folks. There actually is somethin’ due. Any day…
What is due? A new National Planning Policy Framework that will finally, finally, finallllyyyy answer questions we’ve been discussing for months (years?) on what this new government is actually going to do with our planning system.
When is it coming? Early next week.
What’s going to be in it? I DON’T KNOW! That’s the exciting bit. Rumblings have covered everything on the spectrum between minor changes to reverse the depressing amendments of December 2023 (summarised here) to something much more radical. Housing targets will be in there one way or another. Something on the “grey belt” - maybe even… a definition of what it means!?!?! We expect there’ll be tweaks to the core “presumption” policies toward the beginning. I mean. It’s like Tony said. Could be. Who knows?
Next week, guys. It’s going to be a biggie. But before we get there, can we do a bit more clearing of the decks from the mind-bending spiral of events in the first 2.5 or so weeks (it hasn’t even been 3 weeks yet 🤯) of the new Labour government:
So. There was a Kings Speech: here. It’s vague. They always are. On offer, among scores of other legislation, is a new Planning and Infrastructure Bill - explanatory notes here. A really good overall summary of what’s in there is here. If you wanted a 3 word review, on the planning side at least, I’d go for “evolution not revolution”.
Angela Rayner’s letter to environmental NGOs: here. TL;DR - nature preservation and economic growth are going to have to be 2 things we do at the same time. Changes to the law on nutrient neutrality to unlock many tens of thousands of new homes are, we are told, coming.
An early entrant from the reigning champ himself in the coveted annual 🏆 #Planoraks 🏆 award for 2024’s “worst article about planning”: here. Honestly, where to start with Jenkins. Where to start. The greatest mystery of all is why he continues to be given a national platform to spout this stuff.
Back in the real world, a letter from Angela Rayner to local leaders explaining her “presumption towards devolution”, and promising a new devolution framework: here. Plus notes on the new devolution bill are here.
News from the Planning Court: our new head Judge of the planning court when Mr Justice Holgate ascends to the Court of Appeal later this year: Mr Justice Mould (previously aka Tim Mould KC, ex-head of my neck of the woods, Landmark Chambers - as was Mr Justice Holgate back in the day, come to think of it).
Meanwhile, lest we forget about actual Planning Court cases, a really interesting and important modern “supermarket wars” case handed down by the brilliant Dan Kolinsky KC (also of Landmark Chambers) sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court is here: Lidl v East Lindsey DC, Aldi [2024] EWHC 1641. Simon Ricketts summarised it very well here. There will be times, and this was one of them, where you can’t grant permission for one scheme before you’ve considered another.
Renewables bonanza: July 2024 has been, for my money, the best time ever to have a planning application in before the UK Government for major renewable energy development in England. As you’ll remember, almost straight away post-election the government reversed the long-standing de facto embargo on on-shore wind schemes: here. Since 2015, the approval of wind energy has been contingent on the developer achieving - and being able to demonstrate - “community support”. This was part of David Cameron’s push back on so-called “green crap”. Developers can almost never meet this bar about community support (at least not from the community immediately local to wherever the wind turbines are to go). Some tried paying people for local support - that turned out to be unlawful. The number of planning consents for on-shore wind plummeted precipitously to nigh-on zero for a decade or so. Anyway. That was then. Under 3 weeks into this new Government, our new ministers have already granted planning permission for:
The Sunnica Energy Farm: a £600 million scheme which will be one of Europe's largest solar farms on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire borders, and will power 172,000 homes.
The Mallard Pass solar farm: a 350MW scheme in Lincolnshire which is expected to generate power the equivalent of 92,000 homes.
The Gate Burton Energy Park: a 500MW solar scheme, also in Lincolnshire, is expected to generate power for over 160,000 homes.
A further solar farm and battery storage facility in the Green Belt in Warwickshire.
And now we’re told the government has a plan for “GB Energy” to team up with the Crown Estate to deliver enough off-shore wind energy to power 20 million homes. [Insert “winds of change” pun here? Ed.]
Dame Kate Barker CBE - chair of the seminal 2004 ‘Barker Review’ on Housing Supply and the 2006 review on Land Use Planning - along with a team of luminaries have set out “initial recommendations” to Matthew Pennycook: here. The final of the so-called “Radix Big Tent Housing Commission” report is due in the Autumn. But you wonder - might this letter give us a flavour of the direction of travel: mandatory strategic planning, mandatory local plan targets (set through strategic plans), green belt reviews (again through strategic plans), integrating spatial planning functions between authorities and into wider local government functions, boosting small and medium site delivery, an independent review of the Metropolitan Green Belt surrounding London (an area which is half a million hectares, 3 times bigger than Greater London itself, bigger than Trinidad and Tobago and twice the size of Luxembourg).
So. Deep breaths. I’ll be seeing you next week.
Before we get there - can I get in one point early about public opinion. We’re told by YouGov that the “public support many of Labour’s housing and planning reforms, but remain sceptical of building on ‘greenbelt’ land”. Those numbers suggest strong support for new development, including near where those polled actually live. But the numbers drop when you start talking about delivering those homes on the green belt.
There is - it has seemed to me, anyway - an obvious and powerful rebuttal to that. Which is this: most people don’t have the foggiest idea what the green belt is. No criticism in that. Why should they have to understand the niceties of the English planning system? They shouldn’t. And, when it comes to the green belt, they don’t. As I’ve been saying for years to anyone who will listen (the FT here, Radio 4 here, the Sunday Times here) - the green belt is the plank of our national planning policy which is most known about but least understood. That isn’t just my opinion. Consistent polling data shows that over two thirds of people don’t even claim to know much about the green belt (e.g. here and here), and - for the others who do claim to - most of what they think they know is wrong. For that, see this polling last year which asked people what features they associate with the green belt. What single item tops the list in the “word cloud”? Every time. Yes. You guessed it… “green”. I mean, who can blame them. It’s in the title. But in fact, as you all know by now, “greenness” has nothing to do what these urban containment zones (which cover a larger area than they have in decades) are actually for. Also high up the list - forests, wildlife protection, countryside designated for its natural beauty. No, no, no.
So before we get too caught up next week in public opinion about what should or shouldn’t be happening on green belt, or grey belt, or whatever… just a plea. Another plea. A desperate plea… let’s at least start this debate by explaining to people what the current system actually is. Because that might give them a better idea as to why so many people are interested in trying to change it.
Until next week, then, my friends. Only a few more sleeps. Enjoy your weekends. Stay well, #planoraks. Busy times ahead. For all of us. So, whatever else you get up, do your level best to #keeponplanning.
