|
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) two-year performance figures for speed of decision making (Majors, non-Majors and County Matters) will be published in December, covering the period October 2019 to September 2021. If you think your council may be below the minimum threshold and you have not already been contacted by PAS, email peter.ford@local.gov.uk to discuss the support that PAS can offer.
Seventy-six delegates attended our "How to pay for your Planning service when times are tough" event on 9 November. Copies of the three best practice presentations from Plymouth City Council, Maidstone Borough Council and Homes England are now on our website.
We have worked with Natural England and Defra to answer the questions we are most frequently asked by local authority officers and members about biodiversity net gain (BNG) and those that have come up at events so far. We are keen to get your views and comments – you can email Beccy with feedback.
We are scaling up our work on nutrients, and are looking for some expertise to help us with:
- Habitat Regulations and nutrient neutrality
- strategic mitigation planning
- governance and working with stakeholders
- identifying, sifting and delivering environmental schemes
It's an evolving, tricky and interesting area. It's unlikely we will find a single person who can tick all the boxes so we're actively welcoming secondments and part-time secondments from a variety of people. We're still finalising the details but if you'd like to register your interest or have a chat about what's going on in this field, please contact richard.crawley@local.gov.uk.
The Housing Delivery Test (HDT) will shortly be in its fourth year and many councils have now produced Action Plans.
We want to hear views on HDT and the lessons learnt from preparing Action Plans, including hearing from councils who have an Action Plan they are proud of and have improved delivery in their areas. So, come along to this workshop to share your thoughts with us.
Pilgrim Pete has written his first unofficial blog on learning from past town planning gurus. He argues that sometimes you can get inspiration about achieving net zero from town planners of the past even though they would have said at the time, "What the dickens are you talking about?"
A gentle reminder that we are fast approaching December and councils have a statutory requirement to publish their second Infrastructure Funding Statement for the financial year 2020/21 by 31 December. We have published guidance to help you with this and if you need any advice do get in touch at pas@local.gov.uk.
DLUHC issued a Written Ministerial Statement on lorry parking on 8 November 2021. It highlights existing policy in the National Planning Policy Framework and states that DLUHC will take forward a review of how the freight sector is considered in guidance. The accompanying press notice makes clear that planning authorities have a role to play in a programme of improvements to facilities and HGV parking capacity more generally. Get in touch if you have questions.
On 7 December 2021, Natural England will launch a new, online, free, interactive baseline map of Green and Blue Infrastructure across England (beta version) for Local Planning Authorities and Green Infrastructure (GI) stakeholders. Register for the launch.
They are also looking for LPAs at the start of their GI journey to test the draft Framework of GI standards. Contact jane.houghton@naturalengland.org.uk if you are interested.
This week celebrates the 1000th download of Natural England’s ‘Environmental Benefits From Nature’ decision-support tool - developed to work alongside BNG to enable wider benefits for people and nature from habitat change. Take part in shaping the next steps for the Beta Tool by completing the user survey by 7 January 2022.
|
