"The Chancellor is inclined to extend permitted development rights. Such rights typically avoid consultation and constrain the ability of a politically driven decision maker to say 'no'."
- Fergus Charlton, planning partner at national law firm Michelmores
Addressing the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves reiterated the Labour Government’s promise to “get Britain building again".
The Chancellor also pledged to make improvements to the planning system, in a bid to support “builders frustrated by a system that hands power to the blockers”.
Vowing to “rip out the blockages” in the current system, Reeves said that the Labour Government aimed to increase building and introduce new infrastructure across the UK, echoing back to its campaign promise to build over 1.5 million homes this Parliamentary term.
Alun Williams, partner at London law firm Spector Constant & Williams, commented: “The chancellor is another in a long line of politicians who appears pretty adept at identifying the illness plaguing the planning system. The question is whether Labour will be the first to successfully administer a cure.”
Fergus Charlton, planning partner at national law firm Michelmores, said: "Understandably the Chancellor has dipped lightly into the world of planning in her speech to conference. 'Ripping out the blockages' of a system that places great value on community consultation and which turns on both local and national level political decision taking, suggests that the Chancellor is inclined to extend permitted development rights. Such rights typically avoid consultation and constrain the ability of a politically driven decision maker to say 'no'.
"This would be consistent with the direction of travel signalled over the weekend by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government's planning reform working paper that is proposing 'brownfield passports' akin to permissions in principle, and which also extols the use of Local Development Orders."
