Most people assume that you just apply for planning permission and then if you get it you the just build the thing- "simples" as the Meerkat on the advert say? No!
With a simple scheme like a single house or commercial building that is close to the case, but very far from the reality with complex placemaking schemes. If you are wanting to create a new place or substantively change a place you probably need to start by putting in place the planning policy to enable the change you want to see and also to prevent people building the type of change you don’t want to see.
In the UK there is a hierarchy of planning policy with the lower levels having to accord with the higher levels:
The higher levels tend to deal with big picture objectives and the lower local levels deal with local detail and design specific details.
With many complex schemes the masterplan and delivery strategy is written into planning policy through an Area Action Plan (AAP) or Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). Once you have put in place the policy that is really when planning permission matters- for the policy guides what you can get planning permission for.
Pretty much every development requires planning permission to be applied for, and in determining whether to grant permission the planning authority (usually the council) should apply a presumption in favour of sustainable development and should look at whether the proposal accords with adopted planning policy, and if it doesn’t they should look for any really good reasons why the development should be approved- known as material considerations. In practice some (often rural) planning authorities don’t work on this basis and often instead start with a presumption against development….. but this text is not the place to discuss the politics of that further.
In terms of practicalities, the application made for any planning permission should make the case for the scheme and includes an amount of information proportionate to the schemes complexity to allow the planning authority (the council in most cases) to make an informed decision. For a small scheme such as a single house, fairly limited information is required, but for a large scheme of say 2000 houses a large amount of information is required. This could include the following:
· Assessments of current and required: School capacity, transport capacity, health system capacity to determine whether additional provision is required
· Assessments of impact on the environment, wildlife, trees and townscape
· Reviews of the impacts on heritage and archaeology
· Explanations of the design rationale together with design detail, sometimes in full detail, sometimes with less detail if it is an outline rather than full application .
· Viability appraisal to determine the amount of affordable housing the development can afford to provide without preventing it from being delivered.
The planning authority considers these before determining the application and may commission work to assess whether it agrees with this information presented by the applicant before making their decision. For most major regeneration or placemaking schemes, council officers recommend a course of action, but the decision is ultimately taken by the elected council members- essentially meaning politics becomes an integral part of the decision-making process.
When development is refused permission and the applicant appeals or where the Secretary of State gets involved in the decision (usually for political reasons…….) there will usually be a review by an independent, non-political planning inspector- for major schemes this will be a public inquiry. This once again takes decision making out of the political sphere- unless the Secretary of State wishes to ignore the Inspector's view, which they may well do. Guess what can happen with the mix of politics and the decision then……..
Watch this video if you want my brief summary of the planning system before moving on to section 22.
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