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The Snagging List

Introduction By common consensus there will a considerable increase in the submission of planning applications this year, certainly applications for residential development and certainly driven by applications on the Grey Belt. Data published by the LPDF in February suggested a 160% increase in the number of planning applications to be submitted by it’s members between January and June 2025 compared to the number submitted between July and December 2024. Since then evidence for the uptick has largely been anecdotal. I have certainly heard from several builders and promoters of an intention to make 4, 5 or 6 times more planning applications from strategic land portfolios this year than in recent years. Empirical evidence is though also now starting to emerge. MHCLG data published last month reveals that between January and March English LPAs received 6% more planning applications than the same quarter last year, bucking a stark downward trend since 2021 (some of this may though be due...
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On Early Reviews

Amongst very many things of interest in Savills’ recent ‘ Spotlight on Planning 2025 ’, this section will be of particular interest to anybody promoting land through a local plan that is either at or is heading towards examination. When the new NPPF was introduced in late December 2024, local authorities (LAs) could, under certain conditions, take advantage of a transition period which allowed them to progress emerging Local Plans under the previous framework. Faced with an average increase in housing targets of c.80% under the revised standard method, many LPAs had a significant incentive to accelerate the process. By the time the 12th March deadline arrived, 47 LPAs had submitted plans for examination under the previous version of the NPPF, and a further 23 had published Regulation 19 plans, suggesting many authorities were indeed keen to take advantage of the arrangements. Those publishing Regulation 19 plans would be allowed to progress their emerging plans if their emerging housin...

Podcast episode 142: All Builders Big and Small

Podcast episode 142 is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . It has been another exciting few weeks in the fast-paced, ever-changing rock and roll world of town and country planning has it not?   “Thousands of new homes promised to communities will be delivered faster, thanks to major changes to make sure developers deliver on their commitments and do not leave sites half-finished for years”, announced a MHCLG press release on Sunday 25 May.   “This government has taken radical steps to overhaul the planning system to get Britain building again after years of inaction. In the name of delivering security for working people, we are backing the builders not the blockers. Now it’s time for developers to roll up their sleeves and play their part”, said Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner.   A planning reform working paper on speeding up build out ​​and a technical consultation on implementing measures to improve build out transparency...

Podcast episode 141: Grey Belt: policy guidance and appeals

Podcast episode 141 is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . For how long Grey Belt remains part of the policy landscape time will tell, but in the here and now it represents very welcome political recognition that the homes the country needs cannot be built without developing land that is currently identified as Green Belt. The irresistible force, it might be said, has started to shift the immoveable object... If that dynamic continues it may prompt questions about what the Green Belt should actually be for and, perhaps, a Royal Commission on it’s future, but that is very much for tomorrow... In the here and now planners need to know how the inclusion of the Grey Belt concept within the December 2024 version of the NPPF will affect their working lives because anybody involved in trying to bring sustainable sites forward will most surely have their working lives affected. To support practitioners understand the implications of Grey Belt Landmark Chambers held a...

The Story of my Season (2024/25)

What would I want to do were I not a town planner? Every now and then I imagine myself as the Chief Football Writer at a broadsheet newspaper and to indulge that fantasy a little I have got into the habit of writing a match report on Instagram (@samuel__stafford) after every game that I have been to. This is a collation of reports that tell the story of my 2024/25 season. Cordoba 2 Burgos 2 27 August 2024 When we arrived at the ground and parked up this afternoon it was quiet. There was little sign of a game being on. After visiting the Mesquita we wandered around looking for tapas and, having found somewhere, sat and watched at first a couple, and then a few, and then plenty of fans start making their way towards from whence we had come. Once back and once in, having navigated the queues now snaking away from every entrance, the first half very much did not respond to the anticipation built up over the preceding five hours. It was hot enough, even at 10pm, for the players to take a dr...