The Infrastructure Act 2015 became law on 12 February 2015, bringing into effect a raft of changes to the planning system. The Act, which had its first reading in the House of Lords on 5 June 2014, is wide-ranging and covers many areas. The Government hopes that the new measures introduced by The Act will make it easier, quicker and simpler to get ‘Britain building’; providing a significant boost to the economy over the next 10 years.
Key amendments include:
- Measures to cut delays to projects which have already been granted planning permission via a new ‘deemed discharge’ provision on planning conditions if a local planning authority has not notified the applicant of their decision within a set time period.
- Turning the Highways Agency into a government-owned company, Highways England, with the aim of providing stable long term funding in order to drive down costs. Highways England will be an arms-length company more accountable to Parliament and to road users.
- New powers for the Greater London Authority (GLA) to make development orders granting planning permission for development on specified sites within the capital.
- Allowing the Land Registry to create a digitised local land charges register, with the aim of improving access to data, introducing standardised fees, and improving turnaround times on requests for information.
- Changes outlining the provisions for zero carbon homes, allowing developers to pay into a pot instead of delivering carbon-cutting measures onsite.
- The creation of a ‘Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy’ for England and Wales intended to help the delivery of cycling infrastructure.
- A right for local communities to buy a stake in renewable energy infrastructure projects.
Amendments to the Building Act 1984, also now allow developers to provide off-site carbon abatement measures. Where building regulations impose actions resulting from carbon emissions, provisions can be made to offset these emissions by proposing solutions not directly related to building design. These actions include schemes for making payment to a fund, the proceeds of which will be used to pay carbon mitigation measures elsewhere. Financially unviable renewable technologies at present, could be provided for in the future, within new developments. Iceni believe that these measures would help drive down costs for developers, and help kick start the delivery of more housing nationwide.
The 'deemed discharge' of certain planning conditions (i.e. if the local planning authority do not respond within eight weeks, it will be taken to have agreed to discharge them) is, in our view, a welcome step forward. This new process, in theory, should help speed up the implementation of complex planning permissions, possibly reducing development costs in the process. Iceni take the ‘watch this space’ approach, as this change has yet to be fully tested in practice. Further details are outlined in Section 29, adding to Section 74A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
Iceni believe that the changes to legislation associated with the introduction of The Act, represents a welcome streamlining of the planning process on more complex developments. However, and specifically in relation to development in London, it remains to be seen how exactly the new powers for the London Mayor will fit in with the existing process of referring planning applications to the GLA.
We are almost sure that further guidance will be issued by the Government in due course, and we will of course, provide a further update when this happens. Until then, please contact feel free to contact your usual Iceni contact if you have any questions relating to this.
A copy of The Act can be found here.