What the Localism Bill means for Planning: A Brief Guide

The Localism Bill provides the legislative basis for a proposed shift of power from central Government to local communities. It describes six key actions to deliver this, which are to:

• “Lift the burden of bureaucracy”: reducing the cost and control of regulation;
• Empower communities: creating rights for people to get involved with, and direct the development of, their communities;
• Increase local control of public finance: so more decisions on how public money is spent and raised are made within communities;
• Diversify the way public services are supplied: ending public sector monopolies to increase opportunities for all suppliers, extend choice and raise standards of service.
• Provide for more public scrutiny: publishing government information so that people can know how their money is spent, how it is used and to what effect.
• Strengthen accountability to local people: giving rights to change how local services are provided through participation, choice or local referenda.

The specific reforms set out in the bill are discussed further below. Planning issues are discussed first, but the Bill is wide-ranging. Other issues are discussed in brief following this.

What the Localism Bill means for Planning: A Brief Guide is also available as a PDF

Reforms to the Planning System

Regional Strategies abolished A key measure of the Bill is abolition of Regional Strategies, already well trailed. This removes top-down targets for housing delivery that have been unpopular with many local councils, and led to an increase in objections to plans from members of the public.

However, other key strategic policy areas, such as transport and other infrastructure will also be affected. In the short term at least, there is a real threat to delivering sufficient housing starts to meet current and future needs, due to the uncertainty while Local Authorities revise Local Development Documents to reflect local priorities. In the longer –term, this greater local focus may also slow the pace of housing delivery overall. Community Infrastructure Levy The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a locally-set charge that Local Authorities may levy on developers to contribute to new infrastructure. The Bill changes the way this works in three ways:

• Some of the funds will be able to be passed to neighbourhoods where the development has taken place, although these may not then get spent on infrastructure necessarily;
• Funds will be able to be spent on the ongoing costs of infrastructure, as well as the initial capital costs; and
• While independent examiners will still consider whether the charging schedule is reasonable, it will be for the Local Authority to decide how to make it so.

However, the new reforms will not address the reluctance of many local councillors to press for contributions, feeling that this deters developers from their areas. There has been only limited uptake of CIL so far as a consequence. Local Plan Reform Planning inspectors will still assess local plans at a public examination, and Local Authorities still will only be able to adopt plans judged ‘sound’ by the inspector. However, inspectors will only be able to suggest changes if requested by Local Authorities. Local Authorities will be able to do this without clearance from central Government. They also will have to publish up-to-date information on what planning documents they are preparing.

Central government powers to direct changes are specifically limited. While this improved local transparency is to be welcomed, there must be a fear that this limiting of the ability of inspectors to recommend changes to plans may affect the consistency of approach achieved in different areas. Neighbourhood Planning The Bill introduces rights for communities to prepare “Neighbourhood Plans”. These will enable communities to identify classes of permitted development – in full or in outline – in their area.

In some ways, allowing local issues to be settled locally must be a welcome move. However, existing permitted development rights are already quite extensive, and it may well be that reaching local consensus on further relaxations may be very difficult in practice while still protecting the quality of local environments.

Community Right to Build: Local communities will also have the power to take forward development in their area without the need to apply for planning permission, subject to meeting certain safeguards and securing 50% support of the community through a referendum. Communities will be able to identify suitable land, sources of finance and secure support for their proposals. This move aims to allow communities themselves to provide new housing and other facilities in areas where there is presently resistance to change. This is meant to strengthen the resilience of local economies, particularly in rural areas. In a sense, this could be seen as a modern adaptation of the planning exemptions allowed for agricultural uses and buildings, and recognising that rural economies must diversify to survive.

Duty to cooperate: A new duty is placed on Local Authorities and public bodies to cooperate with each other to help ensure joint working when Regional Strategies are abolished, together with measures already announced such as the New Home Bonus (although detail on this is still awaited) and changes to Business Rates. In practice, co-operation has built up through joint working at the regional level in many areas, with clear advantages being appreciated by the authorities involved. This provides a good platform for extending this approach. However, co-operation is not the same as reaching consensus on key cross-boundary issues, and without a higher authority to arbitrate, in future it may be difficult to resolve differences between authorities.

Pre-application consultations: The Bill introduces a new requirement for developers to consult local communities before submitting planning applications for very large developments. This will give local people more chance to comment on proposed developments, and to have an input on issues such as design at an early stage. Opinions raised during this consultation will have to be taken on board by developers when making changes before submitting their planning applications. This is a welcome move, in that developers are sometimes secretive about proposals for commercial reasons. However, this provision may have the opposite effect, and make some developers behave in an even more clandestine manner to avoid the new requirements.

Enforcement Proposals in the bill will tackle abuses of the planning system, such as making deliberately misleading planning applications, and running retrospective planning applications and enforcement appeals simultaneously. This is a welcome move, in that the cynical behaviour adopted by a very few developers cause waste and avoidable costs for both Local Authorities and the public alike.

Infrastructure Planning Commission abolished: The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) is replaced with a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects. Parliament must approve National Policy Statements (NPSs) before nationally-important projects can be designated as such, to minimise the risk of calls for judicial review. Decisions on applications for major infrastructure projects will be taken by Ministers. While emphasising the democratic element of these provisions, which is welcome, it will remain to be seen whether or not the speeding up of decision-making that the setting up of the IPC was meant to achieve will be delivered by these means. The progress of the High Speed Rail 2 proposals is likely to provide an interesting test-bed for this approach. The Bill also makes no reference to the National Planning Framework that the DCLG Business Plan promised will be published by April 2012.

Other Provisions of the Bill

Decentralisation and local democracy: A new “general power of competence” will enable Local Authorities to do anything apart from that which is specifically prohibited. This replaces the existing “ultra vires” principle that means they can only do things they are specifically permitted to do. Local Authorities will be able to return to the committee system of governance, should they wish. Plans will be brought forward to create directly elected mayors in the cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield. Mayoral referendums will be held alongside local elections in May 2012. Where areas vote in favour, mayoral elections will be held alongside local elections in May 2013. Greater freedom will be given to local councillors to campaign and express views on key issues.

The Bill makes it clear that these activities should not lead to accusation of prejudice or legal challenge. The Standards Board is abolished, and replaced by legislation to making it an offence for local councillors to deliberately withhold or misrepresent a personal interest. Local Authorities (and fire and rescue authorities) will have to publish an annual senior pay policy statement, which will have to be followed when setting senior pay. Proposed charges for household rubbish collections or for not recycling enough will be scrapped through repeal of sections of 2008 Climate Change Act.

Community empowerment: A new “community right to challenge” is provided, whereby the public will be able to approve or veto council tax rises planned by a Local Authority (including police and fire authorities) above a ceiling set by the Secretary of State. Such plans will trigger a referendum. More widely, local people, councillors and councils will have the power to instigate a local referendum on any local issue. Voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, parish councils and Local Authority employees delivering a service will be able to express interest in running any service for which they are responsible. Under a new “community right to buy” Local Authorities will have to maintain a list of public or private assets. When these come up for disposal, communities will be able to bid and raise capital to buy them.

Social Housing reform: Local Authorities will be able to determine who qualifies their housing waiting list, based on eligibility rules set centrally.

Tenants not in housing need will be removed from the scope of the allocation rules.

Local Authorities will be given the right to offer people who are homeless suitable accommodation in the private rented sector without their agreement.

Private sector tenancies will be for a minimum fixed term of 12 months.

Local Authority landlords will be able to grant tenancies for a fixed length (minimum 2 years). The current annual centralised system for subsidising council housing is abolished and replaced with a locally run system. Councils will be able to keep rental income and use it locally to maintain their homes. A one-off payment from the Government to each council will be made to allow this. A web-based National Homeswap Scheme will be set up to allow swaps between two or more tenants where each moves permanently into their exchange partner's property. The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) is abolished and its functions moved to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) The Ombudsman regime will be applied to social housing. Housing association tenants who are also members (e.g. share holders) of their landlord organisation will be allowed to take up incentive schemes to facilitate moves out of the social rented sector into owner occupation. Home Information Packs (HIPs), suspended on 21 May 2010, are abolished. Energy performance certificates will still be required.

Specific changes in London: New powers to strengthen London's governance include:

• Devolution of housing investment from the Homes and Communities Agency to the Greater London Authority (GLA).
• The abolition of the London Development Agency, with functions moving to the GLA so that the Mayor is directly accountable.
• New powers for the Mayor to create Development Corporations as a focus for regeneration.
• More control for London Boroughs over major local planning decisions that affect their local communities, with the Mayor will only considering the largest planning applications.
• Streamlining Mayoral strategies into a single Environmental Strategy, and new powers for the GLA to be able to reject the Mayor's final strategies by a two-thirds majority.