Chaos in the planning system
One consequence of the recent general election has been to create a degree of chaos in the planning system.
Historically, it has been down to the local authorities to identify development land in its Local Plan with ongoing five yearly reviews.
However, following its declared intention to carry out a comprehensive reform of the planning system, the last government decided that planning policy would, in future, be determined on a regional basis by reference to a Regional Spatial Strategy, in our case the South-East Plan. In the case of residential development each local authority would then be told (based on overall demand) how many new homes it would be expected to provide and within what timescale. It was then down to the local authority to identify sufficient suitable land to meet that requirement.
Then came the election. The new Coalition Government confirmed its intention to abolish Regional Strategies and to return power to the local authorities. On 27 May 2010, Eric Pickles in his new role as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government wrote to the leaders of all local authorities advising them that decisions on housing supply would now rest with local authorities. He also said that he expected local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate to have regard to his letter as a material planning consideration in reaching their planning decisions.
A similar directive was sent to the Planning Inspectorate which is the independent body which deals with appeals against planning refusals.
The difficulty which this letter presents is that it is not a formal Planning Policy Guideline nor was it issued with the backing of any legislative provision or related Statutory Instrument. It is a statement of intent and statements of intent are not law as any planning lawyer will know.
The difficulty faced by local authorities is that if they do give undue regard to the letter and as a result determine an application with a refusal, there is every possibility that this refusal will be appealed. They will then have to argue their case for refusal at the appeal and may well find themselves the object of an application for costs; not popular in times of local government cutbacks.
The planning inspector is in an even more invidious situation. The Inspectorate is independent of government and its remit is to determine appeals on the basis of the evidence before the appeal in accordance with prevailing planning law.
It would be perfectly reasonable for them to say that until the directive has statutory backing they should ignore it and continue as they have before.
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