Labour's Life Sciences Planning Reform

On 30 January 2024, while still in opposition, Labour announced its Plan for the Life Sciences Sector (the Life Sciences Plan) setting out how it proposed to “strengthen the foundations” of the sector and to “reduce the uncertainty” arising out of numerous areas, including the planning system. 

In the Life Sciences Plan, Labour identified a “clear lack of commercial space for life sciences” with demand growing faster than supply.  This is consistent with CBRE’s commentary in its UK Mid Market Outlook 2024 report which stated that, at the time of publication in July 2024, “take-up for life sciences companies in the first half of the year was modest at 130,000sq ft…” reflecting the lack of readily available lab space.   

Accordingly, Labour’s Life Science’s Plan stated that to ensure available lab space scales to meet the ambitions of the UK’s life sciences sector, planning reform would be proposed to:

• Bring laboratory clusters within the scope of the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime; and 
• Create new National Development Management Policies (NDMPs) tilting the scales in favour of new lab space.

Following the election on 4 July 2024, the new Labour government announced it’s consultation on proposed changes to national planning policy. In particular, chapter 7 of the consultation on the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) identifies laboratories as a “key industry” for which reform is required to “drive greater commercial development” in order for them to be the “engine of the UK’s economy in the future”. 

 The consultation states: 

“…access to laboratory space is essential to the UK’s research and development activities, keeping the UK at the cutting edge of research-intensive sectors such as the life sciences. Scaling up the right lab space to meet growing needs in our world leading clusters is critical to economic growth. It attracts talent and underpins the development of many groundbreaking new discoveries such as precision medicines or quantum technologies.”

To facilitate development of laboratories, amendments to paragraph 86(b) of the NPPF are proposed to require local plan policies to identify “appropriate sites for commercial development which meet the needs of a modern economy …. including suitable locations for uses such as laboratories” (as well as gigafactories, data centres, digital infrastructure, freight and logistics). 

Additionally, the consultation tests whether there is appetite for the expansion of the NSIP regime to cover such developments.  Section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 enables the Secretary of State to direct that certain development should be treated as requiring development consent, enabling the development to be permitted under the Planning Act 2008 rather than obtaining planning permission under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in the usual way. Section 35 has been amended over time to enlarge the scope of developments that may benefit from such directions; the consultation therefore raises the potential for data centres, gigafactories and laboratories to be prescribed as a type of business and commercial development that could be consented under the NSIP regime through a section 35 direction. Accordingly, questions 64 and 65 seek views as to whether such expansion of section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 to laboratories is supported and, if so, whether such power should be limited by scale. 

The NPPF consultation will close at 11:45pm on 24 September 2024.

Finally, a brief word on NDMPs.  Under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, the Secretary of State can designate policies for the development or use of land in England as national development management policies.  Any new NDMPs must be subject to consultation before they can be made, however, the extent of any consultation is determined by the Secretary of State.  Where there is a conflict between a local development plan policy and an NDMP, the conflict must be resolved in favour of the NDMP, so it in effect trumps the development plan. 

Labour has signalled in its Life Science’s Plan that it will create new NDMPs and suggests a number of forms such an NDMP could take:

• One suggestion was to use NDMPs to create a strong presumption in favour of approving applications for lab space or specifying that local plans must specifically identify and allocate sites for lab space or to support significant growth in lab space, however, the proposed amendments to paragraph 86 of the NPPF address this.   
• Another suggestion was for NDMPs to specify a lighter touch process for approving lab space, with decisions decided directly by officers, possibly fast-tracked, subject to a stipulation on timescale or subject to a condition on pre-application engagement.  As above, the government is considering amending the Planning Act 2008 to include lab development, although we query whether this would in reality fast track applications, given the widely discussed shortcomings of the current NSIP regime.  Arguably, the extent of what is suggested here goes beyond national policy and would require further amendment to planning legislation. 
• Finally, it was suggested that a NDMP could be made covering planning for lab space in specific areas of the country, such as across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc and the North West.  We have previously written about the challenges and opportunities for life sciences in the Golden Triangle here.

While we are yet to see any draft NDMPs, the government has reiterated in its NPPF consultation its commitment to swift action on planning reform, including consulting on proposed NDMPs and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure.