Key development controls reforms to take effect

Key changes to the development control system designed to speed up planning and reduce uncertainty will come into force on 24 August, the government has signalled.

The measures, which include greater powers for planning authorities to cold shoulder repeat planning applications and the move to a three-year life for permissions and consents, are set out in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

In a move to allay concern expressed by developers and the property industry, ministers have agreed that the pending removal of the right for extensions to the time limit for permissions will not apply to current permissions for 12 months to give the sector time to adjust to the new regime.

The new powers focus on five parts of the development control regime:

• In respect of major infrastructure projects, a new measure allows for concurrent sessions to be held.
• There will be a new requirement for an economic impact report for applications for major developments of national or regional significance.
• There will be changes to the duration for permission and consent. The default period for the life of a planning permission and consent will be reduced to three years from the current five and there will no longer be a right to extensions to that time limit.
• Local planning authorities will have greater power to decline to determine repeat applications. Statutory consultees will in the future have a duty to respond within 21 days.
• There will be a new requirement for local planning authorities to consult regional planning bodies where a planning application could effect the implementation of the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Junior planning minister Phil Woolas said: “We are sending a message to developers that they have a role to play in creating a faster, more certain planning system that delivers well designed sustainable communities where people want to live and work.”

He added: “It is right that for the majority of development planning permission expires after three years. It is also right that developers will no longer be able to simply seek to extend the life of the permission where they fail to get started in time.”

Roger Milne

4 August 2005