‘Zonal’ planning trial at heart of government reforms

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick said the government will look to pilot a “zonal” approach to planning as part of reforms due in the forthcoming planning white paper.

The suggestion was part of a series of measures laid out in a parliamentary statement on housing and planning today, billed as a back to “first principles” rethink of the planning, which included commitments to reform planning fees and push ahead with previously trailed expansion of permitted development rights.

Jenrick said the reforms were designed to ensure that everyone had access to affordable, safe, quality housing. He said: “We must think boldly and creatively about the planning system to make it fit for the future, and this is just the first step, so we can deliver the homes communities need and help more young people onto the ladder.”

A policy paper, published following Jenrick’s House of Commons statement, said the government was looking to expand the use of zoning tools, such as Local Development Orders, to support development.

LDOs were tools introduced by Labour in 2004 to give local councils the powers to designate specific areas in which projects following basic rules benefit from automatic permission. Jenrick’s policy paper said it would look to trial the use of templates to help local authorities draw up their own LDOs.

The suggestion of “zonal” planning pilots comes after the release in January of a Policy Exchange report by Jack Airey, the prime minister’s new housing policy advisor, which recommended local politicians lose their right to decide individual applications – instead limiting their powers to simply deciding which areas to “zone” for development.

The government said the trial of “zonal” planning templates would form part of reforms outlined in the Planning White Paper, expected in the spring. This will also include proposals to “introduce a new planning fee structure to ensure that planning authorities are properly resourced to improve the speed and quality of their decisions”.

The government will also propose that developers get the right to have their fees paid back to them if they successfully appeal a planning refusal, and make it easier for the public to find out who owns options on development land.

More immediately, the policy paper also announced a review of the formula by which local authorities must calculate housing need in their areas – which was only introduced two years ago – and plans to review the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in the light of concerns over development on the flood plain.

The government will push forward plans for development of the one million-home Oxford-Cambridge development arc with up to four new development corporations, and plans for a “net zero” development in Toton, Nottinghamshire.

Much of the rest of the policy paper contained ideas, such as the expansion of permitted development rights, which have already been announced, some multiple times.

The paper said the government will introduce a right for buildings to be extended upwards by up to two storeys by this summer, and will consult on a policy to grant permitted development for the demolition of vacant office, industrial and residential buildings for the creation of new homes.

Both of these policies have been consulted on previously but have proved more complex to implement than initially expected.

Local authority and planning lobby groups have heavily criticised the government’s expansion of permitted development rights (PDR), which means developments bypass the planning system and aren’t obliged to provide affordable housing or other facilities to mitigate their impact.

The policy paper recommitted the government to implementing the findings of the “beauty commission” to “embed the principles of good design and placemaking” in the NPPF. However, it made no mention of the government’s previously announced intention to review existing PDR rules, heavily criticised by the beauty commission, to ensure they don’t allow the construction of sub-standard homes and places.

Hew Edgar, head of UK Government Relations at the RICS, said he welcomed proposals to allow previously developed land near transport hubs to be used to build new homes and to make placemaking a planning requirement in the National Planning Policy Framework. However, he said it was “bizarre”, given the government’s net-zero commitment, to make it easier to demolish existing buildings. He said: “It isn’t green or sustainable for our planet and [it’s] something ministers have been repeatedly told”, and added that the delay in bringing forward the Planning white paper – first announced in the 2019 Spring Budget, was “inhibiting delivery.”