Schools are back and summer is officially over – except if you’re an MP and term doesn’t start again until 12th October. In what is generally agreed as being the worst recession in memory making the summer even quieter than usual there was a remarkable amount of activity from within government departments who continued to push out policy and legislation perhaps hoping that most of the property industry would be in the south of France and so wouldn’t notice. Quite a lot of it has been on the dull side or on the electioneering side – less policy than promotion – however, PPS thought it worthwhile to give you a round-up of the highlights that occurred while we were all away…
Community Infrastructure Levy
Presumably hoping that everyone would be on holiday and therefore no one would notice, the Government continued it’s stealthy moves towards the implementation of the CIL with the publication of a consultation on the detailed proposals and draft regulations, obviously under the impression that taxing developers is just the thing to get the building industry moving again.
The principles of the CIL may remain sound – increasing fairness, broadening the scope of development to be included, addressing smaller developments in context, enabling a regional approach to be taken, streamlining the relationship between development and tariffs etc. However, the interpretation and implementation raises questions particularly in terms of viability and relationships to S106. The proposals tie the CIL to inflation and focus on it as a means of infrastructure gap funding, there will be elements of flexibility to allow for local and regional variations and tailoring for specific needs – in many cases it may be presented as a per unit tariff focusing on a specific sub-regional regeneration area. A key issue is that the CIL shouldn’t threaten delivery. However, in a changing market where inflation is not necessarily linked to land values or the value of planning permissions, it is an extremely complex measurement. There is one clause which suggests that in exceptional circumstances the charge may be reduced if a developer cannot afford to pay the charge. Whilst the exceptional circumstances are not specified, there is likely to be a concern within local authorities that developers with the ability to afford better lawyers and advisers may be able to use this to beat the system.
Payment will be triggered on commencement of the development with consideration being given to payment in instalments to assist with cash flow. As a means of closing loopholes, the government is considering registering the CIL as a local land charge therefore meaning it is a liability on the land if it goes unpaid which will be public to anyone subsequently purchasing the site. In addition, interest and surcharges will be applicable for non-payment. The CIL will work in conjunction with S106 which will still be used to mitigate direct effects of development and secure affordable housing.
The CIL will be introduced in April 2010. The Government will be hoping that the first test cases prove a success. The Conservatives have been relatively silent on their views on the CIL, it is likely that they will retain some form of tariff – certainly from their perspective the Labour government have done the hard work in putting the legislation together and getting it through.
The IPC
The IPC has finally had a timetable set out and is now populated with decision-makers – although, in the event of a new Government at some point between now and June they may not want to get too comfortable in their seats as the Tories have made it quite clear that they will abolish the IPC as a matter of course – although they will retain the National Policy Statements which will be ratified by the secretary of State as Secondary Legislation.
Pauline Lane, Jan Bessell, Robert Upton, Glyn Roberts and Paul Hudson are all on the board. Fro October, the IPC will be operating in mainly an advisory role, particularly on community consultation, with applications to start being received from 1st March 2010.
We are still waiting the publication of consultations on the National Policy Statements which are expected, imminently and are likely to be controversial. However, the timetable does run into a new Government so there may well be a visible inertia in moving on with some of the policy statements from civil servants who are effectively awaiting new masters and are reluctant to develop policy which is unlikely to go anywhere.
Eco Towns
Almost unnoticed and equally almost as inconsequential, the Government announced the ‘winners’ (slightly dubious term) of the eco towns bidding process. Given that several of the credible bids had withdrawn from the process earlier it would seem that options were somewhat narrowed. However, in the event, the Government selected: St Austell, Cornwall; Rackheath, Norfolk; North West Bicester, Oxfordshire; and Whitehill-Bordon, Hampshire. In complete contrast to the original proposals back in 1997 there is no benefit in terms of planning (despite DCLGs recent assertion that there was never an intention to enable eco-towns to circumvent the normal planning process, there was, in Gordon Brown’s own words – ‘I will invoke the powers in the New Towns Act if necessary) the prize for the successful bids is they they can now go through the normal planning process – perhaps if that had been thought of originally at least one of the bids might be only months away from a planning permission now.
The winners will have the opportunity to bid for a share of £60m to assist in funding the developments with an alleged second wave of eco towns to follow. Rather optimistically, the Government is continuing to assert that the eco towns will contribute to relieve the shortage of affordable housing – although quite how an increase of around 30,000 homes to be delivered in around 10 years time (10 years dependent on planning so pick a number) will help the current shortage of around 240,000 homes isn’t exactly clear. If eco towns were part of a cohesive strategy of bringing forward building across the country, particularly in difficult urban sites, then it could form a credible cornerstone but with house building at its lowest ebb in many years and policy-compliant applications frequently getting stalled in planning, it all seems a little unattainable at this stage.
Affordable Housing in Rural Areas
The Government announced a series of ‘protected areas’ designated for affordable housing in rural areas which will mean that, for the first time, housing can be preserved for first time buyers. A good headline aiming at the increasingly disaffected middle classes, reading the smaller print makes for a less exciting news story. Effectively the policy means that shared ownership must remain shared ownership and cannot be sold onto the open market – a policy which is already in practice in many places across the country. in addition to this, the Government is seeking to Community Land Trusts as a means of boosting affordable housing, rather neatly placing responsibility on communities themselves to provide their own housing and amenities.
Regional Strategies
There has been something of a tug of war over RS’s over the summer. The Government has confidently been putting forward new proposals for the structure of RS’s (combining spatial and economic strategies) and the decision making processes including Local Authority Leaders Boards. On the other hand, the Conservatives have used the opportunity to make it clear that they will abolish RSS’s and potentially all of the related planning materials around them. Although this was no surprise as the Conservatives have made their agenda on this clear for some time, a pointed letter from Caroline Spelman to all Conservative councillors rather laid the issue bare and resulted in a polite slanging match between government and opposition on the matter.
Perhaps more worryingly, was the tone of the letter from Spelman which certainly doesn’t indicate any regard for developers and urges local authorities to effectively sit on planning applications, LDFs reviews and any policies which government is putting pressure on them to accept under the current regional strategies until a new government comes into power next year at which point effectively, all bets are off with many measures able to be introduced without the need for primary legislation. In an incredibly unstable market, introducing yet more political uncertainty is exactly what isn’t needed.
Kick-Start Funding
The Government announced the 270 shortlisted stalled projects to receive a share of £925m in funding as a means of getting development going again. Each region has shortlisted developments and will be allocated a sum of money to get these developments moving again. There will be a second round of kick-start funding in due course. A key criteria is that the developments must already have planning permission so the funding cannot be used to assist viability from a planning perspective.
PPS15
A consultation on a new PPS15 combining PPG15 and PPG16 was published with additional guidance from English Heritage. The intention is for the historic environment to be seen as an asset to development rather than an obstacle with greater encouragement given to integrate the old with the new. However, concerns will centre on the way in which this is interpreted by local authority planning officers and members.
The consultation closes on 30th October.
Killian Pretty Review
The Government published a progress report on implementing the recommendations of the Killian Pretty Review. As might be expected, the easy non-controversial bits are ding remarkably well, the more fundamental aspects which will make any significant difference to major planning are all still under consultation, consideration, prevarication etc. The progress report was issued in tandem with a consultation on improving permitted development (primarily affecting households); a consultation on streamlining PPSs; a consultation on streamlining information required for planning applications; and a consultation on publicity for major planning applications where, in a controversial move demonstrating the confident commitment the government has to the importance and relevance of the KP Review, the government stated that they are keeping an open mind on whether applicants should be obliged to use newspaper adverts – clearly something to keep us all awake at night…
Needless to say, we are expecting a whole raft of exciting initiatives to come out of the Party Conference season where the Conservatives will be preparing for office and Labour will be pretending all is well. Between now and Christmas, there will certainly be much more emerging with the National Policy Statements consultations, further updates on the IPC, progress to be made on eco towns, kick start funding and some clearer policy likely to emerge from the Conservative camp – interestingly they appear to be changing their stance on the HCA, which they have previously indicated they would abolish on coming into power, it now seems that the Conservatives are accepting it will not be quite that simple and are preparing to work with the HCA .
If you would like some more detailed information on any of the issues above please do get in touch.
Written by Stephen Byfield