Updates

Joanna Averley, the DHCLG Chief Planner, has issued another newsletter to local authorities with updates on Government announcements, planning practice and policy. It covers transitional arrangements for Local Plans, a New Homes Accelerator to focus on selected large-scale housing developments that are encountering significant delays, Historic England’s Advice on Adapting Historic Buildings for Energy and Carbon Efficiency, methods for achieving biodiversity net gain requirements and advice on using design codes.

London Councils chief executive Alison Griffin has welcomed the announcement by local government minister Jim McMahon of a review to identify government reforms that could better support councils, to be led by London Councils former chair, Georgia Gould, the MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale and Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office who issued a statement on the subject here.

Many local authorities act as trustees of charities, often of public facilities such as recreation grounds and public gardens; concert halls and buildings of historic interest; swimming pools and war memorials. The Charity Commission has written to Chief Exeutive Officers of local authorities with requirements on identification of such assets and on the way they should manage them.

The Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook MP, has written to the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute to convey a clear message on behalf of government to professional planners on the vital role they have in building the homes we need.

The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP has written to all LPA planning leaders as here to explain the basis of a new “standard method” for calculating housing targets, the sharing of housing need, controlled usage of ‘Grey Belt’ for development, the supply of growth supporting infrastructure, the resources and fees of LPAS and the supply of affordable and social housing.

The Chief Planner, Joanna Averley, in the re-named Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG) wrote to senior planners in local authorities on 2nd August 2024 as here. The letter covered  the proposed new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which is published for consultation until 11.45pm on Tuesday 24 September 2024 and the Government’s plans to deliver the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.

Details of the general election voting in MP constituencies in London and the MPs appointed are shown here. Many of them are now Ministers, as here. The full list of Labour Party Ministers is here.

On May 22, 2024 a London Forum Zoom event highlighted the lack of policy protection when it comes to developments close to the river Thames. Click here for a summary of the presentations and subsequent discussion.

Click below to see the slides used by the five speakers.

1. Thames Policy Areas – Mathieu Proctor
2. Thames Landscape Strategies – Rebecca Law
3. West London Developments – Philip Whyte
4. Stag Brewery, Mortlake – Tim Catchpole
5. London East and Central – Michael Ball

On 10th May 2024 the DLUHC Chief Planner, Joanna Averley, wrote to local authority planning officers as here with details on reforms to Nationally Significant
Infrastructure Projects, updates on statutory guidance around second staircases and an update on progress on implementing build-out measures for planning permissions.

On 28th May 2024, the Government published a new planning appeals guide.

Sections 8 and 9 cover community participation in appeal hearings.

Some 583 schemes above 20 storeys are planned for the capital, more than double the 270 built over the past decade, according to New London Architecture’s 10th annual tall buildings report.  The report finds demand for office space is driving growth in towers despite slowdown in tall residential schemes. Outside of the City, the scale of towers is decreasing with schemes between 12 and 18 storeys rather than the super tall buildings completed in the last 10 to 15 years such as at Nine Elms or the Elephant and Castle. 37% of Londoners now say they could see themselves living in a high-rise home.
NLA press release here.

An architect and veteran campaigner, James Monahan, has launched a judicial review of Camden council’s decision to approve DSDHA’s plans for a “monstrous” 19-storey office tower in Bloomsbury.  Save Museum Street, of which Monahan is a member, have said the plans would damage the setting of the Bloomsbury and Covent Garden conservation areas and the nearby grade I-listed British Museum, Bedford Square and Nicholas Hawksmoor’s St George’s Church.
Read more here.