Planning & Infrastructure Bill – the evolution of planning decision-making

Last month the Government published a working paper setting out how it could change the planning decision-making process and evolve the role of planning committees. The framework for these changes is included in the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, published last week.

National scheme of delegation

The Government’s working paper acknowledged that, whilst decision-making power should largely remain in local hands, significant delay is often incurred when planning committees reconsider the principle of development on a site that has already been allocated in the local development plan and / or decisions are made against an officer recommendation only to later be overturned on appeal. 

The bill therefore includes a power to make regulations that would prescribe what planning functions are to be discharged by planning committee, sub-committee or officer. The intention is to provide a national scheme of delegation; helping to standardise and streamline which decisions are decided by committee, and which are delegated to officers. However, taking decisions away from committees, and thereby removing a layer of democratic oversight, risks a loss of accountability for planning decision-making at local level.

However, as the details would follow in the regulations, the bill does not explain how the delegation scheme would work. The Government’s working paper set out three possible options - delegation to officers where an application complies with the development plan; delegation as a default with exceptions for departures from the development plan; or delegation as the default with a prescriptive list of exceptions. There have been unconfirmed reports that the Government intends to set a threshold below which committees cannot step in (which would be between 10 and 100 homes for a residential scheme), with Angela Rayner indicating that the more technical decisions (such as reserved matters approvals) are to be determined by officers; but it remains to be seen which approach the Government will adopt. 

Targeted committees

Following the success of small, targeted committees like the approach of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, the Government’s working paper considered the potential for dedicated committees to focus on strategic development (where there is such development planned in a council’s area). 

The bill includes a power to make regulations setting out requirements for the size and composition of a planning committee. This could be a route for requiring the creation of “targeted committees” or simply used to limit committee size.

Mandatory training

The Government’s working paper expressed concern at the number of committee decisions overturned at appeal due to weak justification for refusal. The bill therefore facilitates the making of regulations which would require training to be undertaken by members of a local planning authority before they can sit on a committee. The introduction of certified training should help to provide more robust decisions, flowing from members being better informed on planning law and practice.  

Improving the planning system’s efficiency is vital if the Government wants to reach its housing targets and the above proposals are positive. It is also welcome that the Government acknowledges that authorities need assistance - including by allowing authorities to set their own planning application fees which would be ringfenced to the planning service (also facilitated by the bill). However, a fundamental concern remains the need for additional experienced resource at local planning authorities, particularly taking account of an anticipated uptick in applications. Whilst the Government pledged an additional 300 planning officers, more must be done to ensure that the public sector can attract and retain qualified people.