5 things we learned from the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Councils will be able to set their own planning fees 

The new bill will allow councils to set their own planning fees so they can cover their costs and redress the balance in the current system, which is running at a deficit of £362m. This money will be reinvested in the system to speed it up.

The housing secretary will be able to direct a local authority to review its fees if the level set is deemed “not appropriate”, and can in theory set a different fee.

A new national scheme of delegation will be introduced to set out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to a planning committee. The aim behind this change is to make it clear who is responsible for planning decisions within a local planning authority, as well as to increase the speed of decision-making.

Controls over the size of a planning committee will be introduced to ensure “good debate is encouraged”. “Large and unwieldy committees” will be banned in the hope that smaller groups will lead to more effective and efficient decisions being made.

The housing secretary will need to carry out a consultation before making any regulations over the size and make-up of planning committees.

This section of the bill also covers training requirements for local planning authorities, which will make formal training for members mandatory. There will be a requirement for them to publish online which of their members hold valid certificates of completion.

Mayors will also be prohibited from exercising their “mayoral planning functions without a valid certificate of completion”.

Spatial development will dictate housing targets

A system of strategic planning across England, known as spatial development strategies, will be introduced in the bill.

The plans will be produced by strategic planning authorities, which include mayoral combined authorities, combined county authorities, upper-tier county councils and unitary authorities.

Upper-tier county councils or unitary authorities that fall into the scope of another spatial development strategy will not be able to produce their own.

MHCLG said these will boost growth by looking across multiple local planning authorities for the most sustainable areas to build and by ensuring there is a “clear join-up” between development needs and infrastructure requirements.

The strategies may specify “an amount or distribution of housing”, both open market and affordable, if this has strategic importance, as well as any necessary infrastructure. All land use and development should “contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change”.

Draft strategies will need to be published online for a consultation and submitted to the housing secretary for approval, alongside a draft timetable, before being adopted.

Strategic planning boards can also be established to become the strategic planning authority if two or more individual local planning authorities or county councils – known as principal authorities – join together.

The housing secretary will be able to order a strategic planning board to be created if it is “desirable for a spatial development strategy to relate to an area consisting of the areas of two or more principal authorities”.

Development corporations can ‘do anything necessary’ to deliver new towns

The government will hand “enhanced powers” to development corporations to help deliver large schemes, including much-touted ‘new towns’. Development corporations have a rich history in this area as they delivered Labour’s original post-1945 new towns.

Among the new changes, a single development corporation will be allowed to oversee more than one new town to “facilitate efficient development”.

A nod to the climate crisis is also being included as development corporations will have to take into account “the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change”. This builds on the idea of achieving “sustainable development” included in the New Towns Act 1981.

On delivering infrastructure, the corporations will be able to “acquire, hold, manage and dispose of land and other property”. They will also be able to “generally do anything necessary or expedient for the purposes or incidental purposes of the new town”, according to the bill.

Any relevant transport authority will have to “co-operate” with a development corporation to help with its plans, or face intervention from the housing secretary.

Councils able to seize land for development where there are no objections

Councils and mayors will be able to make compulsory purchase orders to seize land for development without needing permission from Whitehall. However, this will only be in cases where there are no objections.

In another change, which has been trailed previously, the rules around hope value – an estimate of what a property is worth with planning permission for alternative development – are being altered.

Councils will be able to buy land more cheaply for development as hope value will be removed in “more circumstances where social and affordable housing is being built”.

Currently, local authorities have to pay inflated hope value costs when they pay for what the land is estimated to be worth if developed.

“The reforms will ensure compensation paid to landowners is not excessive and the process of using directions to remove hope value… where justified in the public interest is sped up,” MHCLG said.

New fund aims to unblock homes and protect green spaces

A key part of the bill aims to unblock some of the bottlenecks that can be created when developers have to show how they will mitigate environmental harm before being granted planning permission.

The government is bringing in a nature restoration fund to ensure builders can meet their environmental obligations “faster and at a greater scale” by pooling contributions to fund larger environmental interventions.

Under the new rules, Natural England will be tasked with establishing an environmental delivery plan (EDP) for geographic areas, which will set out the amount of the nature restoration levy that developers will have to pay.

The EDP will explain which environmental features – such as a protected species – particular developments are likely to “negatively affect” and the measures that should be taken to protect them. These will then be funded by the levy.

Separate charging schedules will cover each type of environmental impact within a single site, and the responsibility to pay the charge generally goes with the land rather than specific developers.

Natural England will also be able to specify that developers meet certain conditions on sites, for example around improving water scarcity. The body will have to consult the public and relevant public authorities on draft EDPs.

The bill also gives Natural England the power to acquire land compulsorily if they need it for a conservation measure.

Each EDP will run for a maximum of 10 years and specify the number of developments permitted in a certain area. After that threshold has been reached, any new developments will not be covered by the plan.

The housing secretary will approve EDPs that pass an “overall improvement test”, with mitigation efforts outweighing negative environmental impacts.