“An unhealthy mix of Luddite intransigence and incompetence”, were the words chosen by Next’s John Barton to describe some councils’ handling of planning. He may not have been cheered by the Budget, then.
In Wednesday’s set piece, the chancellor boasted how the government’s “fundamental overhaul of the planning laws are now helping homes to be built and businesses to expand”. He promised new guidance by the summer, the detail of which became clear a little later.
The consultation will focus on “allowing further flexibilities between use classes to support change of use from certain agricultural and retail uses to residential use to increase responsiveness within the planning system”. Retail-to-resi conversions, in non-mandarin speak, a topic that has real merit but will undoubtedly fuel further contention.
Ministers also claimed that the NPPF had helped to push planning approvals to a 10-year high and that 70% of councils have a published local plan.
Barton might take issue with that kind of boast, after Next fell short of its planned 300,000 sq ft of store openings last year, thanks in part to planning delays. The retailer pledged to harness the full weight of new planning laws to overcome “intransigence and incompetence” from local councils that block its store expansion programme.
Barton said: “Going forward, in areas where councils traditionally have got away with just saying ‘no’, we will be more active in harnessing the law and the full weight of public opinion to campaign for growth.”
It’s clear that planning will be a battleground in the months ahead.
Also on Wednesday morning, in a Commons session that wrapped up a little less than an hour before Osborne stood up, various developers, lawyers, MPs and local authority executives gathered to thrash out a new model for public-private partnerships. There, too, it became clear that planning was at the heart of the mutual suspicion that lingers between the two groups.
Barton would have found like minds at this British Property Federation-convened event, where there are fears that councils lack the resources – and in some cases the skills – to handle planning applications efficiently.
Delivering his Budget speech, the chancellor may have choked on his words – briefly – but there was little in the content to make the property industry do the same. More to cheer than to chastise, was the industry consensus. As the dust settles – and it always takes a day or two for the real post-Budget picture to emerge – the property industry may be left planning for the real battle yet to come.
Estates Gazette was named Magazine of the Year at the LSL Property Press Awards this week. EG won the trophy for the second time in three years at the event, where The Times, The Financial Times and Investors Chronicle were also recognised. On a great night for the team, senior reporter Nick Whitten won Scoop of the Year for his investigation into the real cost of empty rates. His campaign saw chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne agree to review the tax. EG’s Annabel Dixon, Jack Sidders and Joanna Bourke also won medals, with Sophia Furber also shortlisted.
MIPIM had a distinctly residential air last week, especially in and around the London pavilion. Estates Gazette will be building on that momentum with a Residential Summit of our own on 16 April.
Covering everything from investment to development, student accommodation to the private rented sector, attendees will hear from housing minister Mark Prisk, Urban Splash’s Tom Bloxham, First Base’s Elliot Lipton and PRUPIM’s Martin Moore, among many others. Planning is bound to creep on to the agenda too. Click here to sign up.
