Death, taxes and a new Government tackling the planning system’s complexities by layering on yet more legislation are, one learns as one gets older, three of life’s certainties. With no little fanfare, a Planning & Infrastructure Bill has been laid before Parliament with the promise of a planning process “that works for the builders, not blockers”, and, freed from “unnecessary bureaucracy, shovels in the ground more quickly”. The sense of purpose from the Government, as it was in opposition, is positive and nettles not hitherto grasped have now been. The revised NPPF, for example, was certainly bold in relation to housing numbers and Green Belt. By common consensus this boldness will result in a significant increase in planning applications being submitted this year, but these applications will need to navigate the same creaking development management processes under the eye of the same number of planning officers. If applications submitted this year are going to make a meaningful...
Hello. My name is Sam, I am a Town Planner and I sometimes write about town planning-related things (in my own time and as an expression of my own opinions). I have a town planning-related podcast, there is a link to that on this page somewhere, and I circulate a newsletter from time to time. There is a link to that somewhere as well. Should you be so inclined, I am on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford).