Government says “yes” to new homes near train stations

The Government is proposing a new presumption in favour of residential
development on sites close to key transport hubs including those in the green belt.
The sites should be within a reasonable walking distance from train or tram stations.
While not yet specified, Planning Insight suspects that “reasonable walking distance”
will mean within a 15 minute walk time.

Secretary of State for Housing, Steve Reed, indicated that minimum density
standards will be introduced to ensure that these sustainable locations close to rail or
tram stops will maximise development opportunity unlocking tens of thousands of
new homes.

Together with proposed new ‘call-in’ powers for the Secretary of State to determine
applications for 150+ homes, these reforms are another encouraging sign that the
Government will prioritise planning permissions for housing delivery.
These proposals will form part of the forthcoming consultation on revisions to the
National Planning Policy Framework.

Streamlining Call-Ins

Local Planning Authorities will be obliged to refer applications for 150 homes or more
to the Secretary of State when they intend to refuse planning permission. The
Secretary of State will then decide whether to ‘call-in’ and determine the application
himself or allow the Planning Authority to proceed.

As well as reducing the threshold to 150 homes for the Government’s planning
application ‘call-in’ procedure, it will also be streamlined to allow for ‘call-ins’ to be
dealt with as ‘written representations’ rather than relying on time consuming Public
Inquiries. This should allow for call-ins to be determined much more quickly and with
far less cost and administrative burden to all participants.

For London there are separate proposals to allow the Mayor of London to ‘call-in and
determine applications proposing to deliver 50 or more homes.

Speeding up Consultations

The Government further intends to streamline the consultation process for planning
applications by removing Sport England, The Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust
from the list of Statutory Consultees. Local Planning Authorities will no longer need
to invite or indeed await comment from these parties prior to determining an
application. There are wider reforms proposed to drastically reduce the volume of
consultations by 40% and to speed up consultee response times which often delay
planning determinations.

Implications for Landowners and Developers

• A green light for development around key transport nodes
• Encouragement for higher density development on relevant sites
• Green belt development opportunities around existing rail stations in the
  green belt
• Government intervention to push forward planning approvals for larger
  housing projects
• Faster planning decisions through improved management of statutory
  consultees in the planning determination process

The proposals will be subject to public consultation that Planning Insight will continue
to monitor and update on in due course.

If you have a development opportunity that may be influenced by these proposals,
please contact Stuart@planninginsight.co.uk to discuss.