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I hope everyone is having a good summer and surviving the challenges of the British summer time. With the arrival of a new Prime Minister, Secretary of State and team of ministers at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), we will be in for an interesting time following the summer recess.
We still expect a Green Paper, which will bring with it a range of proposals and challenges. We are preparing ourselves to help everyone to understand the implications of the content and to work with the sector to make considered responses.
The PAS team has been really hard at work finalising the programme for our September chief planners event (which looks like being a really good couple of days) and putting the finishing touches to our local plan support on plan reviews and proportionate evidence. The first Housing Delivery Test Action Plans (HDTAPs) will now have been published and we start to work up our events schedule to communicate the new Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) regulations. It’s certainly not a quiet time for PAS.
We are also looking at ways in which we could help councils if money were not an object. If there are issues that affect you and a number of other councils that we currently do not support it would be helpful if you could send the ideas through to pas@local.gov.uk.
I’m writing this en route to the Rose summer holiday and I have faced some challenging questions on the journey thus far. It appears that this is what happens when you encourage your children into your world through George Clarke’s Council House Scandal programme and the recognition of a 100 years of social housing. It is an interesting watch if you get the chance.
Kind regards,
Anna Rose
Head of PAS
For those Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) that scored below 95 per cent on the Housing Delivery Test (HDT), the deadline to submit your action plan is fast approaching.
We have to compile a list of the published action plans. Please don't make us trawl through your website. We would be most grateful if you could email pas@local.gov.uk with the link to your HDTAP. If it is not ready yet (and we know some councils need to wait for sign-off) let us know when you think it will be published, and feel free to tell us anything else that should be noted about your action plan or the housing delivery test more generally. Please note, comments may be passed over to MHCLG.
For all of you negotiating Section 106 planning obligations and charging a CIL, don’t forget that the revised CIL Regulations will come into force on 1 September 2019.
The revised regulations bring forward into practice the Government’s reforms to developer contributions. They are designed to make the existing system less complex and more transparent and for it to be easier for local authorities to introduce and review a CIL.
We will be running a series of free events in September and October with MHCLG on the practical implementation of these reforms, focusing on what you need to be doing to be in conformity with the regulations. These events will focus on what has changed: calculating CIL liabilities; how CIL and Section 106 should operate together; the importance of effective monitoring; and preparing Infrastructure Funding Statements.
We will also run some slightly shorter events for authorities not currently charging CIL.
Find out more and book.
We have updated an article on strategic planning and considerations that should be taken if developing a strategic plan. The article will be updated as we learn more through our strategic planning pilots.
As we approach the six month deadline for just over 100 councils to prepare and publish their HDTAP, Richard Crawley offers some personal reflections on what he has learned along the way.
The short version is that the HDT is not going to fix things all in a flash, but may be the start of a focus on delivery that will deliver long-term benefits.
You can also see the materials from the events in our KHub. Unfortunately we're not able to share the draft action plans we looked at on the day.
In Spring 2019 we carried out survey of planning departments on behalf of MHCLG and the LGA. One hundred and twenty councils responded, giving us a rich picture of how departments of various shapes and sizes view their skills, capacity and longer-term outlook. We have published a high level summary of the results and will be sending out a bespoke report to each council that submitted data in September. The results reinforce the sheer variety of LPAs out there, and there are a couple of surprises - at least to us.
Following two very successful chief planners events we are now in the process of arranging the third, to take place in Nottingham on 26/27 September 2019. We would like chief planners to attend and to bring a rising star along as we would like to speak to the next generation of chief planners. We plan to do the main sessions together and then break out so that we can tailor the content to everyone’s interest and experience levels.
We will be covering content from our PAS programmes (strategic planning/local plans/delivery/development management/developer contributions) plus tackling some new areas, such as resourcing and large scale delivery, with talks from MHCLG’s top planning team. The event is nearly fully booked, so make sure to reserve your places.
PAS and the LGA are delivering their Leadership Essentials course for planning committee chairs and vice-chairs in the Midlands on 19/20 March 2020.
A council's planning committee is a very public window into a council's decision making processes and chairing the committee, and all the preparation and lead-in required for good decision making can be challenging. This course focuses on good quality decision making at planning committee and how a good planning committee is run. Attendees compare how their committee operates with other authorities and share ideas with other councillors.
To book a place please contact grace.collins@local.gov.uk
What’s the legal basis for strategic plans and joint spatial plans?
How to change the Neighbourhood Plan boundary in a designated areas
A self-build appeal decision and implication on meeting demand
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