A blog about planning, planning law and planning policy

Disclaimer

The information on this blog is not intended to be advice, legal or otherwise. You should not rely on it and I do not accept liability in connection with it. If you do have a planning law question on which you would like advice, seek legal advice from a suitably qualified solicitor. Specific advice should be sought for specific problems.

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Shall we just wreck the planning system?

Theresa Villiers MP

The amendments to the Bill are largely to make it amend the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and other existing legislation.

Theresa Villiers MP has put down 19 amendments to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill due to commence its Report Stage on Monday 28 November. She is supported by […]

National Planning Practice Guidance – bungalows, supply and demand and CPRE

The draft NPPG is now available on line after a couple of days of glitches – I have given the link below. Trailed by DCLG over the Bank Holiday weekend, the newspapers picked up on the proposals that more bungalows should be built for the elderly, including clusters only available to older people. And CPRE […]

Hilary Benn – “local communities should decide”

A somewhat surprising alliance between the Daily Telegraph and Labour’s shadow secretary for Communities and Local Government – Hilary Benn – has emerged this morning, with an article by Hilary Benn headlined “The Coalition have got it wrong over planning”.

So let us recall what the Coalition (or rather the Conservative policies adopted by […]

Development, growth, George Osborne and the green belt.

It’s very interesting how George Osborne and his advisers seem to get planning, as the modern system was introduced in 1947. There was a presumption in favour of development, planning was to rebuild the country and the idea was to enable development to happen. See the Uthwatt report for example. So the Chancellor of the […]

Or are lawyers still the number 1 bogeymen?

The Commons debate on the NPPF threw up much adverse comment about the Inspectorate, but we lawyers came in for plenty as well.

I particularly liked Greg Clark’s reply when, having opened the debate with a list of congratulations from many former sworn enemies of the NPPF, he was asked by Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour MP […]

NPPF published

So the NPPF was finally issued yesterday. At 59 pages, even the most hardened critic must welcome it. At last we can say goodbye to the pages of repetition of law and policy in the old PPS series. There is a helpful and explicit list of what has been abolished at the end, beginning with […]

NPPF and the presumption – the text of the Chancellor’s speech

This is what is in the chancellor’s speech

“Next week my Right Honourable Friends the Communities Secretary and the Planning Minister will publish the results of our overhaul of planning regulation.

We’re replacing 1,000 pages of guidance with just 50 pages.

We’re introducing a presumption in favour of sustainable development;

While protecting our most precious […]

NPPF – coming into effect when published next week

The Chancellor has just sat down. He was expected to say that the NPPF was being issued this week, or according to some reports, today. Instead he announced it would be issued by DCLG next week and that it would include the presumption in favour of sustainable development. And then he said that the policy […]

“Protecting the Wider Countryside” – CPRE and the NPPF

I see that CPRE have released another report today, “Protecting the Wider Countryside” claiming that only 49% of the countryside will be protected if the NPPF is adopted in its present form. That is the area which is protected by a national designation. The rest is undesignated. So CPRE argue that it should be subject […]

Treasury man becomes the lead planning civil servant at DCLG

Peter Schofield has been appointed Director-General for Neighbourhoods at DCLG, with responsibility for housing and planning. He moves from the Treasury where he led the Enterprise and Growth Unit. His new Permanent Secretary, said “He will be met by a full in-tray, as we look to him to drive forward key reforms in housing, planning […]