Saturday 4th February 2012 7.24pm
Post your Events LSH's response to the Conservative's Planning Green Paper
The Conservatives yesterday published their Green Paper on Planning ahead of the forthcoming election, setting out their views on the current system and their proposals for a new system, if elected.
Tony McAteer, National Head of the Planning, Development & Regeneration team at national commercial property consultancy, Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), speaking on behalf of his team, said:
“Much has been made already of the Conservatives’ Green Paper on Planning, particularly their intention to move towards ‘localism’. Now published, the Paper explains how things will work in practice.
“The concern we have with the proposed changes is the uncertainty that they bring, and the subsequent inevitable delays. The country is already struggling to emerge from the worst recession in recent history, and the development and construction industries would be well placed to help deliver that recovery in the economy. Anything that impinges on this is therefore a major concern. To that end, notwithstanding the Paper’s comments about transitional arrangements, the proposed ‘root and branch’ change is bound to lead to delays.
“There are parts of the Paper which are to be applauded, such as the introduction of financial incentives to encourage development. In addition, the demise of the Community Infrastructure Levy is certainly not unexpected, although in practice very few Councils have indicated that they would adopt it. It should be noted, though, that the replacement tariff appears to be very similar.
“However, there are other elements that will undoubtedly alarm developers, such as third party rights of appeal and the dismantling of the regional and local frameworks within which the industry has been working for the past few years.
“The rights of appeal issue is to be limited to cases where a process has been abused (decision by the Ombudsman) and where the decision is contrary to Local Plan policy (decision by the Inspectorate). This is as opposed to a decision that is contrary to national policy, on the assumption that Local Plans will ‘always’ conform to that national policy. We see this as being one of the most worrying aspects of the Paper, whereby devolving power to a local level will assume that the Local Planning Authorities will always be right.”
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