Councillors in Enfield attended a skeleton planning committee last week to approve the 2,300-home second phase of Meridian Water, which has been in the works for almost a decade.
Four councillors attended the meeting to debate two applications, with additional planning officers spread across the room. Others dialled in to an audio stream of the meeting. No members of the public attended.
“Neither of the applications was contentious but we considered them to be urgent,” says Sarah Cary, Enfield Council’s executive director for place. Approval of a more contentious scheme may well have been delayed, pending a switch to virtual committees during the UK’s coronavirus-driven lockdown.
Enfield is taking a “pragmatic” position and awaits government guidance on future meetings. “A functioning planning system is a good thing for local development and the economy,” Cary says. “These times will push us to new methods of engagement, consultation and decision-making.”
The council was one of the few to hold a planning committee meeting last week. As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, others have ground to a halt, threatening planning consultation, consents, appeals and wider Local Plan publications.
The Coronavirus Act, which received Royal Assent on 25 March, has gifted communities secretary Robert Jenrick the power to define new regulations for local authority meetings. Jenrick has presented plans for virtual meetings to parliament. Now the industry awaits council implementation of new tools and processes, to push on with planning and new development.
Downing tools
With most meetings in the past two weeks wiped from council calendars, a number of major applications have already been delayed.
Lewisham was unable to debate the first phases of Hutchison Whampoa’s long-awaited Convoys Wharf, SE8, while plans for a 335-flat development at Ilderton Road, SE15, failed to reach a conclusion in Southwark, and agents have reported a number of schemes of around 500 homes have effectively been put on ice.
“Councils in London that are known to be pro-development are working flat out to make sure the new system works and they hit that April cycle,” says property lobbyist Peter Bingle. But he notes not all local planning authorities are as supportive, particularly in some of the outer boroughs.
“The government, the Greater London Authority and London councils need to work very quickly to sustain confidence in the property market in London to avoid a crash,” he says. “The way of dealing with that is to ensure that over the next six months, during the pandemic, planning consents must continue.”
These times will push us to new methods of engagement, consultation and decision-making.
Sarah Cary, Enfield Council
With non-essential physical meetings banned and local authorities working toward remote setups, many have approved constitutional changes to delegate decision making and keep planning ticking in the interim.
Westminster, Harrow and Merton, as well as Manchester and Leeds, have all agreed to consents to chief executive and planning leads.
“There is no reason why, following extensive consultation with the politicians, you can’t have decisions made by non-elected officials during these extreme times,” says RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills.
“It is important now more than ever that councils don’t down tools. There is a lot riding on keeping things going. If you add a delay then investment can walk away or go dormant. No government wants that.”
Consultation in isolation
The biggest challenge for developers in the coming weeks will be public consultation, says Sarah Fitzpatrick, head of planning at Norton Rose Fulbright.
“Where local planning authorities are still validating and processing applications, public participation will need to continue to ensure that applications are validly determined,” she says. “If there is any doubt there will be risk of judicial review, albeit whether it will be easy to issue a judicial review challenge remains to be seen.”
Ealing Council has noted these challenges and asked applicants to step up their own engagement to make sure information still reaches people who are self-isolating.
The council is continuing to hold pre-application meetings via Skype or video tools and went ahead with its March meeting but expects April’s committee will be shelved and is working towards a solution for May.
“I wouldn’t want anything to go ahead unless we have that access for our residents to be able to query and put in representations and objections, in the way that they have done previously,” says council leader Julian Bell.
“We are looking at ways in which we might be able to do virtual meetings going forward. It is important that we make sure that in any process we have the public is able to engage in that.”
Jenrick has approved virtual planning meetings, with the requirement that committee members can hear and, where possible, see each other and that the public can hear and, where possible, see the proceedings. But it is down to councils figure out voting arrangements, access to documents and the level of interaction provided to the general public.
Digital reform
As part of the 2020 Budget, Jenrick vowed to reform the planning system with digital tools. He promised accelerated consents and community engagement, alongside expanding permitted development rights and zoning.
Government documents stated: “The planning process has failed to keep pace. It is now complex, out-of-date and fails to deliver enough homes where they are needed. We will act to change this.”
With councils awaiting new processes to for committees effectively blocking new development, some in the industry have pointed to relaxed planning rules through PDR conversions as a potential solution.
Hills welcomes the digital upgrade and says planning can be flexible. Last week, Jenrick introduced a temporary change of use to allow restaurants, cafés and drinking establishments to become takeaways for a year. Hills adds the RTPI would support changing temporary or semi-temporary uses for hospitals.
“Clearly a pragmatic view has got to be taken in exceptional circumstances,” she says. “What we wouldn’t be supportive of is a free-for-all, because those buildings are going to be around for a long time.” But Hill insists the system is not broken and does not need fixing, or even scrapping.
“One of our fears is that local authorities will be under acute resource requirements and will cut back planning,” she adds. “But planning is the engine that drives economic prosperity in local areas and it is the gateway to construction.”
She is encouraged by the government’s actions to date, funnelling public funds into businesses, salary subsidies and fast-tracking legislation to keep development alive.
“What they have done is outstanding compared to my international counterparts, which are seeing members resign and people who have lost their jobs already,” says Hills.
As planning in countries Australia, New Zealand and Canada slow down, the RTPI is calling on Jenrick and the government to maintain this momentum.
“Our main ask to government is don’t throw the baby out with the bath water with planning, because planning will be here to deliver the agendas for homes and levelling up,” says Hill. “Let’s not waste too much time fiddling around with the planning system. Let’s keep it resourced and get it delivering.”
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