New provisions in the Neighbourhood Planning Bill placing restrictions on pre-commencement conditions in planning permissions are “eye-catching”, but unlikely to be effective, a lawyer has warned.
Carl Dyer, head of the UK national planning team at Irwin Mitchell, admires the intention behind the proposals, but says they are unlikely to prevent the types of conditions that frequently delay the grant of planning permission.
Dyer welcomed the bill as one which proposes a number of sensible amendments to neighbourhood planning and tidies up a lot of compulsory purchase procedures.
But he said that the most eye-catching part of the bill is Clause 7, which introduces a new power for the secretary of state to restrict local authorities’ ability to impose conditions on planning permissions. Such restrictions will have to be made by way of secondary legislation and subject to a public consultation.
The clause introduces a provision stating that pre-commencement conditions on planning permissions in England may only be used “with the written consent of the applicant to the terms of the condition”, unless the secretary of state prescribes circumstances where this condition does not apply.
The bill also introduces legislation adding prior notification applications and notifications of proposed developments under development orders to the list of applications that must be included on a council’s planning register.
Dyer said: “It is generally accepted that the time it takes to fully discharge pre-commencement conditions on a development can significantly delay its implementation. In fact, it is one of the most cited causes of the time-lag between getting consent for a scheme and actually getting construction under way.
“While eye-catching, the government’s proposals to limit the use of pre-commencement conditions, in England, to situations where the applicant has given written consent, is unlikely to be effective in reducing their use.
“Most local authorities draft planning conditions fairly late in the application process. If, a week or two before committee, a developer is given a choice between approving pre-commencement conditions or a recommendation for refusal, then consent is likely to be forthcoming.
“The intention behind these provisions is admirable, but unless the secretary of state is prepared to use his new power to restrict the use of certain types of conditions, then he may find that this ban on pre-commencement conditions without express consent is honoured more in the breach than the observance.”
